JoAnne Carner had the chance in 1974 to become the first LPGA player to win $100,000 in a season, but she missed it. This season, the Hall of Famer can more than make up for losing that piece of history.
This season, Carner starts her bid to become the first LPGA player to reach $2 million in career earnings. Carner, 46, has won $1,935,239 after winning $3,300 Sunday at the tour stop in North Miami, Fla. Pat Bradley is second on the all-time money list with $1,801,617, and Carner doesn`t want anyone else to become the first double millionaire.
”It`s always fun to get the record,” Carner said. ”Kathy Whitworth was the first millionaire, so all of us were chasing her. I`d be happy to be the first one. I like being first, that`s my goal. If I play half-decent, I can do it in the first three, four months.
”I can remember I had a chance to be the first one to win $100,000 in 1974, but the pressure got to me and I folded. Judy Rankin went on to do it. Mark McCormick, the agent, came up to me in the early `70s and said he could make me $100,000 in a year.
”That seemed like a lot of money then. Now it doesn`t seem like much with Nancy Lopez and Alice Miller winning $400,000, but in those days it was unheard of.”
— Miller isn`t going to cut down on her tournament activity after last year`s burnout, but she is going to spread out her appearances a little. Miller won four tournaments and $334,525 last year despite a late-season slump.
”I started out playing well last year but didn`t ever take a two-week break,” said Miller, one of the prize students of Glen View Club pro Ed Oldfield. ”If I take a few weeks off, I`ll do a lot better. It`s hard. Either I like the course, the sponsors, have friends there or something. I`ve got a reason to play in every tournament, and I`ve got to watch it.”
Miller skipped the first event of the season in Boca Raton, Fla. She recently spent a lot of time trying to nurse her 1 1/2-year-old schnauzer back to health, and lost five pounds and a lot of sleep and practice time. The dog died, and Miller, who says she never plays well in Florida, decided to delay the start of her season. She did play this past weekend in North Miami and won $295.
— Why is Scott Verplank, the 1985 Western Open champion, carrying a Western Open golf bag on the tour? The NCAA ruled that the Oklahoma State senior could not carry an OSU bag because it was an advertisement for his college team.
Verplank`s father purchased the bag and had ”Scott Verplank, 1985 Western Open Champion” and the Western Golf Association logo painted on it.
Verplank finished 19 strokes behind winner Hal Sutton in the recent Phoenix Open. He`ll play in the Masters in April, and he`s also expected to be the first amateur invited to the Tournament Players Championship in March.
— The Hazeltine Golf Club at Chaska, Minn., will be the site of the 1991 U.S. Open.
The 91st Open, to be played June 13-16, 1991, will be the fifth U.S. Golf Association championship at Hazeltine and the second U.S. Open. Tony Jacklin won there in 1970, the Open best remembered for runner-up Dave Hill`s comments that Hazeltine was ”a cow pasture.” Hazeltine also has been the site of two Women`s Opens and one Senior Open.
— Johnny Dawson, who began his long association with golf at Glen Oak Country Club in Glen Ellyn, died Jan. 6 in Palm Springs, Calif., at the age of 83. Dawson, who went to high school with Red Grange at Wheaton, was captain of the 1942 Walker Cup team and was a three-time USGA senior champion.
Dawson, who won the Houston Open in 1930 and 1934 as an amateur, was a prime mover in making Palm Springs a golf mecca. He built six courses in Palm Springs, including Thunderbird and Eldorado.
