LPGA Washed Out Again; It Ends Today, Rain or Shine

After persistent rains prevented the GNA/Glendale Federal tournament from completing three rounds of golf in four days at the Oakmont Country Club, the LPGA rearranged its priorities Sunday for the $250,000 tournament.

Today it will go into a fifth dAy in an attempt to complete the third round and be satisfied with 54 holes, instead of the scheduled 72.

Sunday’s attempt to finish the third round and get on with the fourth was a complete washout. LPGA Commissioner John Laupheimer and tournament director Don Andersen announced early in the day that they were giving up trying for 72 holes and will be satisfied if they can get in what’s left of the third round. The winner, if 54 holes are played, will receive the $37,500 first prize.

Fifty-one players, needing to finish anywhere from one to eight holes, depending on where they were when play was halted at 4:42 p.m. Saturday, will return to the Glendale course at 10 a.m. today. Nineteen fortunate ones completed their 54 holes earlier Saturday, but none were among the leaders.

If more rain today wipes out this fifth day effort, Shelley Hamlin and Laurie Rinker will be declared 36-hole co-champions with a three-under-par 141. If anyone is hoping for more rain, it might be Hamlin, who fell four shots back of co-leaders Chris Johnson and Jane Geddes in the 11 holes she played Saturday. Hamlin, 36, a former four-time California Amateur champion from Fresno, has not won a tournament since 1978.

Johnson, a two-time winner in 1984, and Geddes, who has not won in three years on the tour, are both one under par after 48 holes. The best 54-hole finishers were Val Skinner and Betsy King at 6-over-par 222.

Play cannot be carried over to Tuesday because the players must get to Tucson, Ariz., for the Circle K Open at the Randolph North Golf Club, which starts Wednesday with a pro-am.

The last time an LPGA tournament was cut to 36 holes because of rain was in 1981 when Sally Little of South Africa was declared the winner of the Olympia Gold tournament at Industry Hills when a proposed Monday round was wiped out.