Aree Wongluekiet

Dottie Pepper lost a three-stroke lead in the final three holes Saturday, dropping into a five-way tie for the lead heading into the final round of the Safeway LPGA Golf Championship at Portland. Pepper ended her second round at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club course with a double bogey on No. 17 and a bogey on 18. That gave her a two-over 74 and a two-day total of 143. Also at 143 were 14-year-old amateur sensation Aree Wongluekiet, Donna Andrews, Annika Sorenstam and Mi Hyun Kim.

The names on the lockers this week at Mission Hills go like this, in order, Naree, Aree, Karrie. . . . We may be talking the chain of command on the LPGA Tour in the next few years. Naree and Aree Wongluekiet are 14-year-old amateurs playing in their second Nabisco Championship, where Karrie Webb is not only the defending champion but also the top player in the game. At this point, Webb is hoping nobody is too quick to tear the pages from the calendar.

The names on the lockers this week at Mission Hills go like this, in order, Naree, Aree, Karrie. . . . We may be talking the chain of command on the LPGA Tour in the next few years. Naree and Aree Wongluekiet are 14-year-old amateurs playing in their second Nabisco Championship, where Karrie Webb is not only the defending champion but also the top player in the game. At this point, Webb is hoping nobody is too quick to tear the pages from the calendar.

Dottie Pepper lost a three-stroke lead in the final three holes Saturday, dropping into a five-way tie for the lead heading into the final round of the Safeway LPGA Golf Championship at Portland. Pepper ended her second round at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club course with a double bogey on No. 17 and a bogey on 18. That gave her a two-over 74 and a two-day total of 143. Also at 143 were 14-year-old amateur sensation Aree Wongluekiet, Donna Andrews, Annika Sorenstam and Mi Hyun Kim.

LPGA Tour rookie Diana D'Alessio needed only 23 putts Thursday in a five-under-par 67 that gave her the first-round lead in the du Maurier Classic at Aylmer, Canada, the final major of the year in women's golf. D'Alessio's career-best round gave her a two-stroke lead over Se Ri Pak, Annika Sorenstam, Kristi Albers, Marisa Baena and Tracy Hanson. Karrie Webb, seeking to become the first golfer since 1986 to win three majors in one year, shot a 71 at the 6,403-yard Royal Ottawa Golf Club.

Ina Kim of Encino, beating a national champion for the second consecutive day, won two matches Friday and reached the final of the 52nd U.S. Girls' Junior Amateur Championship at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club at North Plains, Ore. Kim won three of the last four holes in the semifinals to defeat Violeta Retamoza, the Mexican girls' champion, 3 and 2. On Thursday, Kim beat Aree Wongluekiet, the defending U.S. champion.

Out here in the desert this weekend, there are some things you can count on seeing. Besides sand, of course. Here's the list: date palms, cactus, golf courses every block, out-of-state license plates in the rearview mirror and Karrie Webb in the winner's circle.

Annika Sorenstam's course this week in the du Maurier Classic is the prudent one: fairways and greens. Putt for birdie, but be satisfied with par. So far, so good. In the first two rounds of the LPGA's last major tournament of 2000, Sorenstam shot consecutive three-under-par 69s to take a one-stroke lead over Canada's Lorie Kane at Alymer, Canada.

On a day when 14-year-old Aree Wongluekiet and veteran Dottie Pepper faded from the lead, Mi Hyun Kim survived a triple-bogey on the 17th hole and a two-hole sudden-death playoff against fellow South Korean Jeong Jang to win the LPGA Safeway Golf Championship Sunday at Portland, Ore. Kim, the 1999 rookie of the year, gave up the lead twice to Jang on the back nine, but forced the playoff with a birdie on No. 18 to finish with a 72 for a three-day total of one-under 215.

Kellee Booth of Coto de Caza continued her sizzling summer by taking medalist honors Tuesday at the Women's North-South Amateur at Pinehurst No. 8 in North Carolina. Booth, the No. 1 ranked women's amateur in the nation, shot a two-day total of one-under-par 144 to qualify for the 32-player match-play field in her final tuneup for next week's U.S. Women's Amateur.

Eleven Southern Californians are among the 64 who have qualified for match play beginning today at the United States Golf Assn. Girls Junior Championships in Mission Hills, Kan. Carling Cho of San Juan Capistrano, Erica Blasberg of Corona, Jane Park of La Crescenta and Angela Won of Irvine, finished in a six-way tie for sixth at one-over 143 for two rounds.