Up by Three Shots, Webb Appears to Be on a Mission

By THOMAS BONK

March 25, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

RANCHO MIRAGE — Attention, LPGA shoppers. You’re halfway through the Nabisco Championship, but it’s already over. Karrie Webb has a three-shot lead and nobody is going to run her down without a golf cart. The only way she can lose is if somebody steals her clubs and she has to play with a bunker rake.

After all, Webb has won almost everything this year except the California primary, so why should the first major of the year be any different? Karrie?

“I don’t think by any means that this tournament is in the bag at all,” said Webb, who is at seven-under-par 137. “I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.”

Yeah, such as practicing your Sunday afternoon victory speech. Look at it this way: At 4 p.m. Friday, there wasn’t one player on the Mission Hills course who was closer to Webb than eight shots.

Webb actually wobbled a little coming in when she played the back in one over, but she birdied the 18th to conclude a 5-hour 25-minute round of 70 and then headed for the putting green to roll a few balls before dark.

Closest to Webb is Dottie Pepper, who plugged her way to a methodical round of 72 and had a four-under total of 140 that kept her within three shots, but it wasn’t as if Pepper was putting on a huge charge or anything.

“Nothing wonderful happened and nothing horrible happened either,” Pepper said.

Meanwhile, something really monotonous is happening with Webb.

She is leading yet another tournament and is well on her way toward winning her fourth LPGA event this year, her fifth overall. The only one Webb didn’t win was last week at Phoenix, where she finished second.

“Obviously I feel very confident on the golf course,” she said. “I just feel good about things.”

Webb got an early start on acquiring those good feelings when she birdied the first three holes, making putts of five, 10 and 45 feet. She gave one shot back with a bogey at No. 13 after she missed the fairway and lost another shot at the par-three 17th when she knocked the ball through the green into the long rough.

Maybe there should be an asterisk by that bogey. There was a two-group backup at No. 17 and Webb had to cool her spikes for a while. Why the slow play? Webb wasn’t sure about that, either.

“Obviously the course is set up tough,” she said. “It’s not much fun out there.”

Pepper was pleased with her day, which began with 10 consecutive pars before she made a birdie at No. 11.

“You know, major championship conditions, even par never hurt you,” Pepper said.

Few challengers stepped forward, but Chris Johnson was one of them. Johnson’s 68 moved her from a tie for 19th into third place at 141. Lori Kane is next at 142 after a second consecutive 71 and Trish Johnson is fifth at 143.

A total of 74 players made the cut, which was at seven-over 151, two shots higher than last year. Aree Wongluekiet made the cut at two-over 146 with a 71, but 13-year-old twin Naree missed it by five shots when she finished with a 82.

Aree said she isn’t that surprised.

“I expected to make the cut,” she said. “It was one of my goals, so, yeah, I’m pretty happy.”

As for Webb, the challenges remain. How will she handle the wind? How will she get more putts to fall? How will she spend another winner’s check?

Webb doesn’t think about it that way, of course. She was concerned enough about her putting to get back out on the putting green for a while. The 10-footer she made for her birdie at No. 18 didn’t hurt her disposition.

“I don’t feel like I putted overly bad,” she said. “I think I hit a lot of good putts that I just either misread or were through the break or not hard enough. I didn’t hit many bad putts, but [it was] just one of those days where [if] a few more putts had gone in, it could have been anything.”

The late Jim Murray, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and Bob Rosburg, an ABC golf reporter for 25 years, were the first recipients of the Babe Zaharias LPGA Journalism Awards presented Friday.

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In Front

Leaders through Friday in the Nabisco Championship (Mission Hills Country Club, par 72):

Karrie Webb 67-70--137 -7

Dottie Pepper 68-72--140 -4

Chris Johnson 73-68--141 -3

Lorie Kane 71-71--142 -2

Trish Johnson 72-71--143 -1

Sherri Steinhauer 73-71--144 E

Se Ri Pak 73-71--144 E

Pat Hurst 72-72--144 E

Kris Tschetter 75-70--145 +1