LPGA’s Webb still adjusting to spotlight off the golf course

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

Fame doesn't come cheaply.

That's a lesson LPGA Tour player Karrie Webb learned very quickly when she was thrust into the national spotlight three years ago as a 21-year-old rookie.

Webb, currently ranked first on the LPGA Tour's money list with $1,491,459, had high hopes when she teed off today in the first round of the PageNet Championship at the Desert Inn Golf Club.

The season-ending tournament is reserved for the top 30 players on the money list and will decide the winner of the Rolex Player of the Year Award, the Vare Trophy and the money list title.

The only change to the field has been the addition of Jenny Lidback, 31st on the money list after Dottie Pepper, who was eighth, withdrew because of a wrist injury.

Depending on how Webb does this week, she could sweep all three awards since she is in a tight race with recent LPGA Hall of Fame inductee, Juli Inkster, in all of the categories.

Sitting in a chair set up in the media room of the D.I., Webb was relaxed and chatty when talking about the week, much unlike the woman much of the media has labeled "boring."

"I haven't actually even looked at, you know, what it would take to win or lose even Player of the Year (honors)," Webb acknowledged. "I don't really want to know because, I don't know."

She paused then added, "That is too much pressure out there because if Juli looks like she is going to win and I have to like, finish in a certain position, I'd just rather not know and play like I have to win the golf tournament."

In her first year as a pro, Webb won four tournaments and was the LPGA Tour's leading money winner for the 1996 season.

The same year, she also made history by becoming the first rookie on both the LPGA or PGA Tours to reach the $1 million mark and the first LPGA player ever to make $1 million in one season.

That's when the questions poured in and Webb was unsure of how to address the groups of strangers crowded around her.

To this day, she says she is still trying to figure it out.

"It does overwhelm me," she said of the attention. "I've had a problem with the media's perception this year.

"They say I'm boring and I don't have a personality. For me, this has been a learning process. Talking to strangers about yourself, trying to express yourself without offending any one.

"It did really bother me this year," she said of the negative publicity. "They wanted me to give them some story, but I didn't feel like I was asked the right questions so they could get to know me."

Webb will probably never dead-pan an answer the way outspoken NBA player Charles Barkley would, but she shouldn't be expected to be like a Barkley. Webb can only be herself.

"I think I'm outgoing when I'm around my friends, but I tend to be quiet and reserved if I don't know the person," she said. "I think I'm quiet because I am not sure if my personality will match theirs so I'd rather wait and see."

After three weeks off, Webb will see how well she does on the 6,373-yard par 72 course at the D.I.

For the record, the "boring" Webb just got certified to be a scuba diver and plans on treating herself to a new fishing boat since her old one she candidly termed a "piece of crap," got wiped out by Hurricane Irene.