Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 12, 1993 TAG: 9307120115
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lopez needed a 25-foot eagle putt from the fringe on the final hole to force a sudden-death playoff with Deb Richard, then birdied the same hole minutes later to win her first tournament since September.
"I told my caddie on the driving range, `Today I have to be patient. If I have a bad hole, don't let me get mad,' " the LPGA Hall of Fame player said after the 47th victory of her career.
Lopez didn't lose her temper when she bogeyed the first hole of the day, recovering to play the final eight holes 5 under. She ran her career record to 7-6 in playoffs.
"It gets tougher and tougher every year," she said. "You always wonder as a professional athlete, `Am I going to win?' This year I've come close but I've fallen apart. I never felt nervous, but I felt pressure on myself. I couldn't find a calm there. That's what was hurting me most of all.
"I was choking myself with the pressure to win instead of just letting it happen."
After back-to-back rounds of 68, Lopez closed with a 5-under-par 67 to finish at 13-under 203 at Avalon Lakes Golf Course. She won $75,000 from a purse of $500,000.
"If you're going to get beat, get beat by a Hall of Famer playing at her best," Richard said.
The playoff began on the 18th. Lopez went off the tee first and found the left rough 50 yards behind a tree. She hit a 3-iron runner under the tree that rolled the final 100 yards to the green of the 451-yard, par-5 hole, stopping 20 feet from the pin. She two-putted for a birdie.
Richard found the fairway bunker Sunday both times she played the 18th, rated the easiest hole on the course. She recovered for a par in regulation.
Missing the playoff by a stroke were Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, Hollis Stacy and career non-winners Missie McGeorge and Debbie McHaffey. Bradley had scores of 66 and 65 the final two rounds, while Stacy rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt on the closing hole for a 67.
\ RHODEN STILL AN ACE: In Stateline, Nev., Rick Rhoden shot a 2-under-par 70 and beat Johnny Bench by four strokes in the $400,000 Isuzu Celebrity Golf Championship. Rhoden, a former major-league pitcher, finished 54 holes at 9-under 207 in beating Bench, the Cincinnati Reds' Hall of Fame catcher who closed with a 71. Rhoden won his second consecutive celebrity event and earned $75,000. Houston Oilers kicker Al Del Greco shot a 73 and finished third at 214.
by CNB