Mary Budke

There were no crowds at Rancho Park Golf Course Thursday--no galleries of fans following the leaders on the final day of the Los Angeles City Women's Golf Championships. But the lack of attention didn't detract from the fact that the women who played in the 67th annual tournament are some of the best golfers in the Southland. Mary Budke, 36, an emergency physician who won the U.S. Amateur title 18 years ago, shot a 75 in the final round for a total of 224 to win the title by four strokes.

Mired in the slump that had stolen her game several years ago, Mary Budke pressed for answers. To relieve the pressure, she agreed to play a round of golf with two friends, neither of whom knew her background as a former U.S. Amateur and national intercollegiate champion and winner of eight Oregon Amateur titles in nine years. It didn't matter. "I teed off and hit the ball two fairways to the right," Budke said. "Then I hit it way to the left. I played terrible. It was embarrassing.

Mired in the slump that had stolen her game several years ago, Mary Budke pressed for answers. To relieve the pressure, she agreed to play a round of golf with two friends, neither of whom knew her background as a former U.S. Amateur and national intercollegiate champion and winner of eight Oregon Amateur titles in nine years. It didn't matter. "I teed off and hit the ball two fairways to the right," Budke said. "Then I hit it way to the left. I played terrible. It was embarrassing.

There were no crowds at Rancho Park Golf Course Thursday--no galleries of fans following the leaders on the final day of the Los Angeles City Women's Golf Championships. But the lack of attention didn't detract from the fact that the women who played in the 67th annual tournament are some of the best golfers in the Southland. Mary Budke, 36, an emergency physician who won the U.S. Amateur title 18 years ago, shot a 75 in the final round for a total of 224 to win the title by four strokes.

Mary Budke of Oakmont Country Club has a two-stroke lead entering the final round today in the Los Angeles City Women's Golf Championships at Rancho Park Golf Course. After shooting a 75 Tuesday in the opening round to tie with Claudine Rubin of Woodland Hills Country Club, Budke had two birdies en route to a 74 Wednesday for a three-over-par 149. Rubin fell behind Budke Wednesday when she double-bogied the first hole, and made only one birdie the rest of the way to finish at 76 for a 151.

Bill Glasson and Pat Bradley scored an eagle at the fourth playoff hole Sunday to beat Duffy Waldorf and Patty Sheehan and win the $1 million J.C. Penney tournament at Largo, Fla. Glasson and Bradley, playing as a team for the first time, shot the day's best round (66), with birdies on five of the first seven holes in the event matching players from the PGA and LPGA tours.

Mike Hulbert and Lori Garbacz, a last-minute pairing, and the veteran team of Larry Mize and Martha Nause shared the lead in the third round of the $800,000 J.C. Penney golf tournament at Largo, Fla., Saturday. Garbacz, who replaced injured Val Skinner as Hulbert's partner, and Hulbert, who finished second with Skinner 2 years ago, combined for a 7-under-par 65 over the par-72 Bardmoor Country Club course.

John Huston and Amy Benz won the $800,000 J.C. Penney Golf Classic Sunday, beating the team of Larry Mize and Martha Nause by two strokes in a tense windup at Largo, Fla. that prompted Mize to complain about the tournament operation. "Who ran the scoreboard here?" he asked after leaving the 18th green at the Bardmoor Country Club. "We thought all we had to do was sink a putt on the 18th to reach a tie and cause a playoff."

Had wagering been allowed in the final of the California Amateur Golf Championships, the odds of Emilee Klein beating Dr. Mary Budke would have been roughly the same as the odds of anyone other than Chick Hearn actually using the name Great Western Forum. For starters, Klein is 14 years old. Fourteen years is the average age of a pair of golf shoes at a municipal course.

What was supposed to be the Dream Summer for Mitch Voges of Simi Valley has suddenly become a nightmare, with creepy-crawly things lurking at every golf course he plays. The 1991 U.S. Amateur champion from Simi Valley was invited to play in the most elite tournament in the world on the merit of his stirring Amateur victory last year. So far, he has failed to make the cut in any of the big events, including the Masters, the Memorial tournament and, last week, the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

By the end of this week, Emilee Klein may just fall in love with Kansas. She might even want to make it her official residence, buy a dog named Toto and spend a lifetime tapping the heels of her shoes together and mumbling, "There's no place like home." Of course, that's already been done. What hasn't been done is a 17-year-old winning the United States Women's Amateur golf championship. Klein might be on the verge of changing that.

Nobody likes to talk about it, but golf officials took notice when Monica Seles was stabbed in the back by a fan at a tennis tournament in Germany. Some view it as an isolated incident, an unpredictable act by a deranged fan. But others are starting to recognize that when large crowds gather to watch sporting events, there is always a chance that it can be spoiled by a loose cannon looking for attention. Beefed-up security can protect athletes in most sports.