Nicholas Not Coming Up Short So Far

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. —  You could use Alison Nicholas’ game in your kid’s geometry class. You know: The shortest distance between two points is an Alison Nicholas tee shot. The shape of a curve is an Alison Nicholas lag putt.

And you could use Nancy Lopez’s game on your kid’s trip to the amusement park. Get a thrill on the Nancy Lopez roller coaster.

They are the last twosome in today’s final round of the 52nd U.S. Women’s Open, and the matchup was set up by Nicholas’ 67 on Saturday that was about as boring a four-under-par round as you’ll ever see in a major golf tournament.

Meanwhile, Lopez had an excellent adventure on her way to a 69.

Nicholas has a 54-hole total of 10-under 203, three shots better than Lopez had two better than Meg Mallon’s three-round Open record, shot in 1995 at The Broadmoor.

Nicholas had four birdies and a bogey Saturday, and has had only three bogeys all week.

Lopez had three bogeys on the front side Saturday, frittering away the three strokes she picked up with a birdie on No. 3 and a 30-foot eagle putt on No. 4 that “as soon as it came off my putter blade I felt like it was going in,” Lopez said.

She bogeyed three of the next four holes, and added three more birdies and a bogey on the back side to finish with 69 and her third sub-70 round in a tournament in which there has never been four.

And she’s three shots behind.

“You never know,” Lopez said, “but I probably could have said that [three rounds in the 60s] would be leading the tournament, yeah.”

Instead, it has her sandwiched between two Brits, Nicholas and Lisa Hackney, whose 67 gave her a total of 208.

“I have to go out there tomorrow feeling like I’m representing the United States, because it’s basically like that,” Lopez said.

She will have to wave the flag at a lead owned by someone who had come to golf late, at 17, and only after giving up team sports largely because school had about given up on her.

“I never was that academic-minded, so I wasn’t doing too well on that front,” Nicholas admitted. “I was quite a reasonable tennis player, but being a little small, I think it was a disadvantage. It’s tough when you can’t see the opponent on the other side of the net sometimes.”

Nicholas is 5 feet tall, shortest player in the field.

“So I decided to have a go at golf and took to the game like a duck to water,” she said.

She has paddled through a lot of countries’ opens as a winner, but all of them were sponsored by breakfast cereals, or computers or hotel chains, and they were played in Britain, Germany and Sweden. This the U.S. Women’s Open, and no matter how much outward calm she shows, she is masking a lot of adrenaline.

How else to explain a tee-shot average that has gone from 219 yards to 231.5 and 262.5 in the last three days?

Lopez is still open to an Open victory. She has three seconds, and a lot of people want her to have a first.

“I’m sure she’s got a few more fans than I’ll have here,” Nicholas said. “She’s a great girl and a legend.”

Nicholas has won twice in the United States and often overseas. Lopez has won 48 tournaments, three of them in Portland, where she could be elected mayor.

Nicholas is in the field because Lopez was representing the U.S. in the 1990 Solheim Cup, the women’s answer to the Ryder Cup. By then, Nicholas was disgusted by her lack of success on the LPGA Tour and was back home in England, licking her wounds on the European tour.

“I suppose playing in Europe I was always at the top of the field, in the top 10,” Nicholas, 35, said. “I came out and played here and obviously played against better players . . . so I was just struggling, really, and felt homesick and I wasn’t enjoying it.”

Lopez’s suggestion came after the two had played in a singles match.

“Yeah, I lost 6 and 5 [actually, 6 and 4], I think,” Nicholas says.

Another debacle like that would make Lopez’s mission of winning a U.S. Women’s Open in her 21st try much easier. Nobody has been in a longer Open tunnel without seeing the light.

Patty Sheehan comes closest, winning in 1992, in her 17th try.

“I’m thrilled to be in the position I’m in going into tomorrow,” Lopez said. “I haven’t been this close in a long time to win the U.S. Open.”

The last time she was in the final twosome of an Open was 1977 at Hazeltine, where she shot a 74 and finished second to Hollis Stacy, worrying all day because she had broken her zipper and found leaning over to line up putts too embarrassing to bear.

Nicholas’ quest is to keep on keeping on. “I’m absolutely delighted to be where I am,” she said. “I just tried to hit fairways and greens, and obviously made a few putts, as well. It all worked out very well for me.”

It’s her game: fairways and greens, more boring than a roller coaster but good enough to have her at 10 under par after three rounds of a tournament in which the winner has never been better than nine under.

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Nicholas Ahead by 3

Alison Nicholas: 70-66-67--203 -10

Nancy Lopez: 69-68-69--206 -7

Lisa Hackney: 71-70-67--208 -5

Kim Williams: 71-71-67--209 -4

Karrie Webb: 73-72-65--210 -3

* STORY, C3; COMPLETE SCORES, C12