Associated Press
Sunday, September 24

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Dottie Pepper didn't want to be too hard on herself after a three-shot advantage evaporated into a five-way tie for the lead Saturday in the Safeway LPGA Golf Championship.

Pepper ended her second round at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club course with a double bogey on No. 17 and a bogey on 18. The bogeys gave Pepper a 2-over 74 for the day and a two-day total of 143.

Also at 143 were 14-year-old amateur sensation Aree Wongluekeit, Donna Andrews, Annika Sorenstam and Mi Hyun Kim. But Pepper didn't appear too worried.

"If you had told me last weekend that I would be tied for the lead going into (this) Sunday I would have been like, 'yeah, right,"' she said.

Pepper, a 35-year-old veteran, and Wongluekeit opened the day tied for the lead at 3-under. But Pepper, who was playing in her first tournament since injuring her back in July, quickly took control with a birdie on the first hole, while Wongluekeit opened with three straight bogeys.

Then Pepper stumbled with a bogey on the short par-5 7th hole, dropping her lead to two strokes. She pushed her lead back to three strokes with a birdie on the par-4 11th moments before Andrews eagled the par-5 12th, her second eagle in three holes, to move into contention.

"I just got tired out there at the end and the last couple swings were just really tired looking," Pepper said. "My back right now is crying for a break from it. There is really no pain, but it is feeling tired."

After her slow start, Wongluekeit picked up her first birdie of the day at No. 13. She followed with another birdie at No. 16, a par-3, to cut Pepper's advantage to two strokes.

Pepper lost the rest of her lead when she three-putted No. 17 for a double bogey. Wongluekeit, who received an exemption to play in this weekend's tournament, only needed to par the 17th to put pull into a tie at the top of the leaderboard.

"As the day went on, I was really struggling with the speed (of my putts)," Pepper said.

Wongluekeit appeared to be in trouble on the final hole, a 377-yard par 4, when she hit her approach shot into a greenside pond. But she still managed to scramble for a bogey while Pepper two-putted for a bogey after putting her approach shot into a bunker.

"She really hung in there," Pepper said of the youngster. "She started off hitting it left (off the tee), which is really just a sign of nerves, but she was really able to hang in there and get back into it."

Kim, who also played in the final group, wound up with a share of the lead when she parred the last hole and finished the day with a 73. Andrews and Sorenstam, who played together in the next to last group, both shot 72.