Keggi Is Left to Stand and Watch, and Listen to Crowd’s Cheers for Lopez : Golf: Second-year pro loses lead by bogeying four of final seven holes. Missed 3 1/2-foot putt on No. 18 keeps her out of playoff.

BUENA PARK —  Caroline Keggi was the leader, but she had to follow the cheers.

Why did it seem as if Keggi was chasing Nancy Lopez and not vice versa? Keggi began the final round of the LPGA tournament Sunday at Los Coyotes Country Club at nine under par, alone in first place.

After four holes, she was 11 under, three strokes ahead of second-place Cathy Gerring and at least six shots ahead of everyone else.

It was her tournament to lose, and she lost it, bogeying four of the final seven holes and missing a 3 1/2-foot putt for par on No. 18 that left her with a 75 and out of a playoff between Lopez and Gerring.

Lopez, the defending champion, won the tournament on the first playoff hole.

“Frustrating,” said Keggi as she sat in a tent during the playoff. “Frustrating.”

As a cheer rose from the crowd watching the playoff, Keggi quickly identified it. “Lopez,” she said. “No, that could be Gerring, because it wasn’t quite out of hand.”

By the end of the day, Keggi knew the timbre of a Lopez gallery cheering a birdie.

Lopez, who began the day six strokes back and in a tie for fourth, was playing ahead of Keggi, whose leading threesome was bringing up the rear. Lopez shot a 68.

Keggi, a second-year pro, knew she had handed over what would have been her first tour victory.

“I’m a big believer in staying in the present tense as much as possible,” said Keggi, knowing she hadn’t done that Sunday. “I believe it’s a mistake to get into the future or the past. Instead of worrying about the shot at that moment, I was worrying about a playoff or screwing up. I hadn’t been in that situation before. Hopefully, I’ll handle it a little better next time.”

Throughout the final round, Keggi knew Lopez was coming after her--or, perhaps, that she was falling back to Lopez.

Nowhere was it more clear than when Keggi stood in the rough to the right of the fairway after her tee shot on No. 17, watching Lopez putt for par ahead of her.

Clinging to a one-shot lead, Keggi chose a five-iron to try to make it to the green. Her shot caromed off a nearby Monterey Pine, all but ensuring a bogey or worse on the par-four hole.

Keggi stood with her hands on her hips, surveying her predicament.

Fifty yards away, Lopez teed up on No. 18 to more cheers from her faithful gallery.

Keggi recovered nicely, but still finished with a five.

In truth, much of the damage was done elsewhere.

Keggi three-putted three times, something she hadn’t done all week.

On Nos. 10 and 11, still leading by four strokes, her putts for birdies stopped at the lips of the cups.

She bogeyed No. 14, leaving an eight-foot putt short.

All told, she birdied Nos. 1 and 4, but bogeyed Nos. 7, 12, 14, 17 and 18.

Keggi had her troubles, but none of them was insurmountable until the 18th, when she missed a 3 1/2-foot putt for par.

“It was a pull,” she said, “a straight pull. I never gave it a chance.”

All day, Keggi knew what Gerring was doing, because they were playing together. And she knew what Lopez was doing, thanks to a gallery that kept half the course apprised of Lopez’s every stroke.

You might think it would have been less agonizing not to have known. But Keggi lost the NCAA championship in 1986, finishing second without knowing what the competition was doing. She won it in 1987, as a senior at New Mexico.

“I like to know what I have to do,” Keggi said.

She knew this time and it didn’t help.

Victory didn’t come this time, but the promise of her career was clear two years ago, when she was invited to play in the Nabisco Dinah Shore as an amateur and finished fourth.

Sunday, she was on the verge of victory for the second time in a little more than a month.

She lost to Gerring in a playoff last month at Stratton Mountain, Vt., and she bungled her opportunity Sunday.

“It’s a fine line (that separates winning from finishing second or third),” Keggi said. “I’m realizing it’s bigger than I (thought). It’s hard. You’ve got to learn how to win. It’s easier to lose than to win, that’s for sure. Maybe I don’t feel that way right at this moment, though. But I’ll get there.”