EXPERIENCE PAYS OFF AT OAKMONT; EGGELING, 43, WINS LPGA EVENT IN PLAYOFF.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Daily News Staff Writer

Prune juice for everyone.

Dale Eggeling, at 43 a full-fledged member of the LPGA Tour's elder generation, led the charge of the fortysomethings Sunday at Oakmont Country Club - a charge that carried all the way to the winner's circle of the Los Angeles Women's Championship.

Eggeling secured her third tour victory in 23 seasons when she made a 15-foot putt on the first playoff hole to defeat Hiromi Kobayashi, who led most of the tournament.

``I cried when I made that putt,'' Eggeling said. ``Compared to the other wins, this I could really feel.''

She and Kobayashi finished regulation play 3-under par at 141, one stroke ahead of Karrie Webb, Cindy Schreyer and Elaine Crosby in the $650,000 tournament that was shortened from 54 to 36 holes because of rain.

Eggeling earned $97,500 for winning and wound up one of four Baby Boomers in the top 10, as Nancy Lopez, 41, Vicki Fergon, 42, and Shelley Hamlin, 48, were part of a seven-way tie for sixth at 143.

``I don't feel old, I feel like I've got a second career,'' said Eggeling, who neither looks nor acts like one of the tour's elder stateswomen. She tuned up for Oakmont by making a few runs in a drag racer on Tuesday.

Turns out, it was just the practice she needed for her tournament-winning birdie putt on Oakmont's 440-yard, uphill par-5 18th hole:

``I've never been that nervous,'' Eggeling said of her -1/8-mile run of 100 miles per hour. ``After being behind the wheel of 750 horsepower, that putt didn't seem that tough.''

For more than an hour after Eggeling finished regulation play, her putt didn't even seem necessary. She trailed Kobayashi by a stroke at the time, and Kobayashi - playing in the last group of the day - was barely under way on a back nine she had blistered for an LPGA season-best half-round score of 6-under-par 30 on Friday.

``I didn't think I had a chance,'' said Eggeling, ``but everyone said to stick around.''

While she was waiting, Kobayashi bogeyed 13 and 14 to fall out of the lead, rebounded with a birdie on 15 to regain a tie for first, but then bogeyed again on 16 and seemed out of contention when she drove her tee shot into a fairway bunker on 18.

``I didn't putt, I didn't putt, you know, I didn't putt,'' she would say later.

But Kobayashi did make one hugely dramatic putt - a curling, downhill birdie on 18 to force the playoff after digging herself out of that bunker and knocking a sand wedge to within 15 feet of the cup.

``I couldn't look,'' said Eggeling, who was practice-putting next to the 18th green, just in case.

It got more nerve-racking for Eggeling when she hit her playoff tee shot into a mound of rough right of the fairway, while Kobayashi's drive hit left-center fairway and longer.

Eggeling had no choice but to lay up - at 84 yards - while Kobayashi pulled out a wood and went for the green. When she wound up short in a right-side bunker, Eggeling was back in the game, and the part-time drag racer from Tampa, Fla., didn't waste the opportunity - hitting a sand wedge 15 feet right of the cup.

After Kobayashi failed to reach the green from the bunker, then putted past the green and again back past the cup, Eggeling could have won with a par but drained the birdie.

Her second win as a Lilly Legend (the tournament within a tournament for players over 40) left her tearful and grateful.

``Before,'' Eggeling said, ``I didn't take it seriously. I'm learning to focus more, my equipment is better, I'm working out, too. Who knows how long I'll be able to play at this level? So I've got to do it while I can. Keep searching for the secret.''

Webb, who reached the 18th green in two with a driver and 5-wood, just missed on a 5-foot eagle putt that would have earned her a berth in the playoff.

But she said she felt good about her play.

``I'm happy - this is my first tournament,'' said Webb, who will be competing in her homeland in the Australian Ladies Masters in two weeks.

The tournament, which attracted 95 of the top 100 players on the tour, landed a fair share of them near the top.

Player of the Year Annika Sorenstam and long-hitting crowd favorite Laura Davies finished in a tie for sixth at 143, while Dottie Pepper and La Canada's Helen Alfredsson shared 13th at 144.

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Photo

PHOTO Dale Eggeling celebrates after securing her third LPGA Tour victory in 23 seasons at the L.A. Women's Championship in Glendale.

David Sprague/Daily News