Associated Press
Wednesday, August 23

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The Oldsmobile Classic has produced some of the LPGA Tour's highest drama. Too bad Dottie Pepper isn't around to create some more.

	Kelli Kuehne's Sunday rally came up two shots shy at last year's Oldsmobile Classic.

The sore back that forced Pepper to withdraw midway through the second round of the U.S. Women's Open will keep her off the tour for another month. That means Kelli Kuehne's payback bid will have to wait.

Still, 12 of the top 30 players on the circuit's money list are at Walnut Hills Country Club this week, including top-ranked Karrie Webb and Meg Mallon.

Webb has won five times this year, including two of the season's four major championships. She leads the money list with $1.5 million.

Mallon, who has won twice, earned the third major championship of her career at the du Maurier Classic two weeks ago. The only major winner not in this week's field is LPGA champion Juli Inkster.

But it's the exuberant Pepper who will be missed.

Pepper and Kuehne, winner of two U.S. Women's Amateur championships before turning pro, staged one of the best finishes of the season last year at the classic.

The veteran did what champions are supposed to do, making shots when she had to.

Pepper, who struggled throughout the final two rounds, rattled in a 35-foot birdie putt from just off the green on the 72nd hole. That nailed down a two-stroke victory over the hard-charging Kuehne, who came from five shots off the pace to catch Pepper at one point on the back nine.

"It was a hell of a putt," said Kuehne, who closed with a 5-under 67. "There's no other way to say it. About five feet from the hole, I knew it was in. I know I would have loved to have been in her shoes."

Pepper wasn't sharp, but she was tenacious, closing with a 70 for an 18-under 270 total.

"It saddens me to miss my title defense," Pepper said. "But I'm working as hard as I can in rehab right now."

Pepper described the injury as "functional overload" caused by playing too much golf the past four years.

"This is an injury that has been coming on for quite a while," she said.

Pepper, winless this year but still ninth on the money list, is being treated by back specialist Tom Boers of Columbus, Ga., whose other patients have included Fred Couples, Ernie Els and David Duval.

Pepper is aiming to return to the tour by the Betsy King Classic in Kutztown, Pa., on Sept. 8. She also said there is "no doubt" she will play in the Solheim Cup, starting Oct. 6 in Scotland. She already has qualified for the match-play event, in which she went 4-0 two years ago.

Since its inception in 1992, the Oldsmobile Classic has seen a number of record-breaking performances and memorable champions.

Barb Mucha, a graduate of nearby Michigan State, gave the hometown folks plenty to cheer about by winning the inaugural event, the second of her five LPGA victories.

Beth Daniel, a LPGA Hall of Famer, made the Olds one of her four victories in 1994. Dale Eggeling, who had gone winless for 14 years, 11 months and four days -- the LPGA's record for longest time between wins -- captured the 1995 Olds title.

Michelle McGann defeated Liselotte Neumann in 1996 in the only Olds playoff. And Lisa Walters set an LPGA 72-hole record of 23-under 265 when she defeated Donna Andrews by six strokes in 1998. That record has since been broken by Webb.

As fate would have it, Walters, like Pepper, was unable to defend her title because of an injury to her wrist.