Val Skinner

Professional golfers Val Skinner and Muffin Spencer-Devlin have commited to play in the LPGA's $250,000 GNA/Glendale Federal tournament March 12-16 at the Oakmont Country Club.

After persistent rains prevented the GNA/Glendale Federal tournament from completing three rounds of golf in four days at the Oakmont Country Club, the LPGA rearranged its priorities Sunday for the $250,000 tournament. Today it will go into a fifth dAy in an attempt to complete the third round and be satisfied with 54 holes, instead of the scheduled 72. Sunday's attempt to finish the third round and get on with the fourth was a complete washout.

After persistent rains prevented the GNA/Glendale Federal tournament from completing three rounds of golf in four days at the Oakmont Country Club, the LPGA rearranged its priorities Sunday for the $250,000 tournament. Today it will go into a fifth dAy in an attempt to complete the third round and be satisfied with 54 holes, instead of the scheduled 72. Sunday's attempt to finish the third round and get on with the fourth was a complete washout.

Professional golfers Val Skinner and Muffin Spencer-Devlin have commited to play in the LPGA's $250,000 GNA/Glendale Federal tournament March 12-16 at the Oakmont Country Club.

Hal Sutton sank a 15-foot birdie put on the first extra hole Sunday to beat Mike Reid in a playoff and win the $400,000 Southwest tournament at Abilene, Tex. It was Sutton's second sudden-death win this year. He defeated David Ogrin in a playoff to win the Memphis Open. Reid and Sutton finished 72 holes at 273, 15-under par, after fighting 30 m.p.h. winds that sent scores soaring at the Fairway Oaks Golf Club. Sutton shot a 71 and Reid had an even-par 72.

Betsy King will have to wait at least another week for a chance to make it to the LPGA Hall of Fame. King, who led the Lady Keystone Open by one stroke as final-round play began Sunday, finished with a 73 for a three-under 213, tied for third with Val Skinner, two shots behind winner Elaine Crosby. Laura Davies was second. King has won 29 tour victories, and her 30th will put her in the Hall of Fame.

Jane Geddes, this year's U.S. Women's Open champion, will be among eight women pro golfers challenging Greg Norman and other men in the $250,000 Spalding Invitational tournament on New Year's weekend. The non-tour event will be played Dec. 31-Jan 3 on three courses. The women get distance advantages off the tees.

Laurette Maritz, a senior three-time All-American golfer from United States International University, won the 12th tournament of her collegiate career Sunday, taking the Women's Collegiate Patty Sheehan Golf Invitational at Monterey's Fort Ord Bayonet Golf Course by two shots. Maritz' three-day total of five-over-par 221 tied the tournament record set by Oklahoma State's Val Skinner in 1983. Despite Maritz' performance, USIU, ranked No. 16 in the country, finished 11th in the team competition.

Heather Daly-Donofrio, an LPGA rookie who also coaches golf at Yale, gave a lesson in playing wet greens Thursday. She shrugged off the puddles and sloshy ground of the Crestview Country Club to shoot a five-under-par 67 for the first-round lead in the LPGA Friendly's Classic. Val Skinner shot 68. Starting on the back nine, Daly-Donofrio was even par after a bogey at No. 11 and a birdie at No. 12. She picked up three strokes in the middle of her round with birdies on Nos.

Hal Sutton sank a 15-foot birdie put on the first extra hole Sunday to beat Mike Reid in a playoff and win the $400,000 Southwest tournament at Abilene, Tex. It was Sutton's second sudden-death win this year. He defeated David Ogrin in a playoff to win the Memphis Open. Reid and Sutton finished 72 holes at 273, 15-under par, after fighting 30 m.p.h. winds that sent scores soaring at the Fairway Oaks Golf Club. Sutton shot a 71 and Reid had an even-par 72.

Betsy King shot a 7-under-par 64 Friday to take a 5-stroke lead in the first round of the $500,000 LPGA Jamaica golf tournament. There was a four-way tie for second place at 69 among Nancy Lopez, Hollis Stacy, Cathy Morse and Patty Rizzo. King, a 12-year veteran on the LPGA Tour, had a 31 on the front nine to move into the lead. "I putted as well as you can expect in one round," King said. Some of the tour's better players had their problems.

Grant Waite shot a four-under-par 67 at the Kemper Open to put himself in an unprecedented position Friday--on top of the leader board after the second round of a PGA tournament. Waite's nine-under 133 total at the halfway point at Potomac, Md., gave him a two-shot lead over Tom Kite, who had six birdies en route to a 65. Kite made the cut for the first time in four tournaments since a back injury in March. "It was a pleasing day on the greens," Kite said.