Byline: DAN RALEY P-I reporter
AUBURN -- She's far down the leaderboard, two holes spoiling her otherwise pinpoint play. Just one agent has called in recent months, inquiring about her future plans. Her gallery at Washington National Golf Club starts and ends with her parents, in from Enid, Okla.
Yet Tulsa's Stacy Prammanasudh always has made the most of what she has.
Once the NCAAs end, she will turn pro without fanfare. No news conference, podium or entourage. In two weeks, she'll simply show up and tee off in a Futures Tour event in Decatur, Ill.
Prammanasudh will approach the next stage of her golf career with little more than the will to succeed. So far, this method has worked just fine for a golfer simply known as Stacy P.
She was raised on the very public Meadow Lakes Golf Course in Enid, a basketball town in the heart of football country. Before heading to the NBA, Mark and Brent Price grew up there.
Her father, Lou, is a factory worker, a machinist, originally from Thailand; her mother, Brenda, is a Kmart layaway clerk. They're a hard-working family without the frills.
There were no country club memberships, no Leadbetter Academy sojourns paving the way for this golf career to flourish. Just good old-fashioned grit.
'I work labor,' Lou Prammanasudh said while trailing behind his daughter during the second round. 'We didn't have the money to send her to college.'
Golf got her there. Today, Prammanasudh is an internship away from graduation with a degree in sports medicine and exercise sciences, her Tulsa education paid for by her natural ability to hit a little white ball. She has a 3.88 grade point average. She has won 10 collegiate tournaments, fifth best all-time among NCAA women golfers.
About all she hasn't done is lay claim to a NCAA title, her rounds of 76 and 72 dulling those possibilities, leaving her nine strokes behind. However, she doesn't act like it's over.
'It would complete a good college career,' Prammanasudh said. 'But if I don't win, there's lots out there.'
No one will deny her anything. She hails from the same school that produced Nancy Lopez, and naturally has drawn favorable comparisons to the LPGA Hall of Fame player.
'They both have this attitude, which is common sense, but not a lot of people seem to know it, that golf is not perfect and you have to make the most of your mistakes,' said former Tulsa coach Dale McNamara, who recruited both golfers. 'Nancy was wonderful at this. So is Stacy. They both keep their cool.'
Prammanasudh worries about paying for her early pro efforts. Funny, no one else does.
'In her second year at college, she said, `I want to be on my own, live by myself, support myself; I don't want your money, I'll work in the summer,'' Lou Prammanasudh recounted. 'I said, `I'll put the money aside in case you fall.' She hasn't touched it yet.'
HOST TEAM: Washington had three of its five players shoot lower scores in the second round, one significantly better, but the Huskies still weren't happy. Their 9-over-par 599 total left them tied for 13th with Tulsa.
UW coach Mary Lou Mulflur says her team belongs in the top 10 and, because of the home-course advantage at Washington National, she had viewed the Huskies as possible contenders.
'You can't win with one player playing well,' Mulflur said. 'Mentally, we just don't handle things very well. We had it going at one point and really let it get away from us. It's frustrating. I know they're frustrated, too.'
Freshman Paige Mackenzie shot 2-under 70, six lower than her first round. She nearly aced the 16th hole. Using a 9-wood on the 178-yard hole, the Yakima native rimmed the cup with her tee shot, leaving it 18 inches away for a tap-in birdie.
'I had just bogeyed the previous two holes, so I needed a boost coming in,' she said.
Said Mulflur of Mackenzie, 'She's very, very talented. She's certainly one of the best players to come out of the state in a long, long time.'
Louise Friberg shot 76, a three-stroke improvement, and Kelli Kamimura shot 77, six better than her first round. Michelle Grafos posted another 74, while Lindsay Morgan had a notable falloff, shooting 80, seven worse than her opening round.
'We certainly thought we could win on our own golf course,' Mulflur said. 'Now we'll have to re-evaluate.'
HOLE OF HORRORS: The third hole, a narrow 346-yarder, has played the toughest so far. Players have averaged 4.54 strokes. Tourney favorite Lorena Ochoa picked up her first bogey there.
