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Easy does it for Webb

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Posted: Monday August 09, 1999 03:47 PM

By winning the du Maurier Classic at Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club in Alberta on Sunday, Karrie Webb proved that "practise", as they say in Canada, doesn't always make perfect.

For the first two days of the tournament, Webb, who has won 15 times in just three years on tour, struggled to one-over-par. After her round on Friday, Webb dined on fine food in the du Maurier hospitality room, rubbed her belly, took a look at the threatening skies and called it a day. Without practicing. Webb said she was exhausted from trudging up and down the course's hills and left without so much as making a divot on the range or rolling a putt on the practice green -- something highly unusual for the 24-year-old workaholic. "That is very rare," Webb said after Saturday's round. "But this course will wear on you and I wanted to pace myself this week."

THE SHAG BAG Dawn Coe-Jones , who finished fourth last week and was low Canadian, was upset to see her friend Lisa Walters in the gallery with a cast on. "Now she can't come over and paint my laundry room," said Coe-Jones... Sara Sanders , Mi Hyun Kim , Carin Koch , Lisa Hackney , and Sherri Turner all recorded hole-in-ones at the du Maurier, bringing the total of aces on the LPGA this season to 28 -- one shy of the record set in 1997...Laura Davies has made five Trans-Atlantic flights in the last six weeks. In the same time period she has six Top 10 finishes... Se Ri Pak's caddie Jeff "Tree" Cable had to have his red jump suit tailored. "They got me one that fits," the 6'6", 275-pound Cable said of the outfit caddies are required to wear. "But I don't think I'll be wearing it to the prom."...At age 60, JoAnne Carner became the oldest player to make the cut at an LPGA major...After winning the Giant Eagle Classic on July 25, Jackie Gallagher-Smith landed back on earth. Hard. She missed the cut for the du Maurier after firing rounds of 81-77...I didn't make it to Banff but I did ride the luge at Olympic Park in Calgary. It was a thrill a second -- 34 in all -- despite banging against the ice walls four times and fearing for my life.

While other players spent time sightseeing in Calgary, Webb stayed in her rented house and relaxed. She conserved her energy and it paid off. Webb birdied 18 of her last 40 holes -- including four of the last five -- to beat Laura Davies by two shots and win her first major title on the LPGA tour. "I didn't go luging, fishing or even to Banff," said Webb, referring to the picturesque town in the Canadian Rockies. "It was a pretty boring week." At least she wasn't boring on the golf course.

Kane's Cup dreams: Lorie Kane didn't fall and hit her head on the ice, but last Thursday she did seem to get her sports a bit mixed up. Kane, a native of Prince Edward Island, equates winning the du Maurier to winning the Stanley Cup. "Well, we are hockey crazy up here and we don't get the Cup much," she said. "For me to win a major championship in Canada would be equivalent to how a Canadian hockey player would feel about winning the Stanley Cup for a Canadian team."

A Canadian has not won the du Maurier since Jocelyne Brourassa -- now the executive director of the event -- accomplished the feat in 1973. The last north-of-the-border team to raise the Stanley Cup was the 1993 Montreal Canadiens. "Don't get me wrong," Kane said. "There are a lot of great Canadians with their names on the Stanley Cup. They just aren't in Canada."

Kane is a hockey fanatic, but when asked to name her favorite team she hemmed and hawed. "I always cheer for the Canadian team that goes the farthest." Kane said, before being asked the question again. "I'm a Red Wings fan," she confessed. "I like Steve Yzerman. He's Canadian." Then, like a good politician, Kane changed her mind midstream. "It's not hard to be a Leafs fan, though. I think this could be their year."

Rizzo's last hurrah: Early last week, Patti Rizzo thought a higher power was sending her signs to stay away from the du Maurier. First her two year-old daughter, Gabriela, got a sty in her eye and couldn't make the trip. Then Rizzo couldn't get her luggage-filled car trunk to shut and had to tie it down. Upon arriving at Fort Lauderdale Airport with a half-hour to spare, Rizzo discovered that she was scheduled to fly out of Miami. After waiting three hours for the next flight, she finally arrived in Calgary -- but her golf clubs and luggage didn't.

"I thought it was one of two things: either I wasn't meant to go at all or the good Lord was telling me, 'You are going to get there no matter what and you are going to play,'" said Rizzo, after tying Rosie Jones for the first-round lead. "I guess it was the second."

Rizzo credited her great first-round play to a trip to Banff and the fact that she knows her career is almost over. Instead of pounding balls on the range Wednesday, the 39-year-old Rizzo took her son Seve to Banff and Lake Louise. "I went horseback riding and went up in the gondola and didn't even think about a golf club." Rizzo said. "I played my practice round only because I had never seen the course before. I had the last three weeks off and I didn't touch a club once."

With four LPGA titles to her credit, Rizzo says that the du Maurier will be her last hurrah. "I am 99 percent sure that I am going to stop playing after this week," she said with tears in her eyes. "Maybe the only way I won't retire is if I win here." Rizzo didn't win, but she did make the cut and finished tied for 64th with Gail Graham .

Tom Hanson, a contributor to Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section, caddies for Sara Sanders on the LPGA tour. His column will appear weekly on golfplus.cnnsi.com.