One Step Remains, but It’s a Giant One for Alcott : Golf: She plays at Los Coyotes in search of the tournament victory she needs to make the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Amy Alcott has won 29 official LPGA events and 34 tournaments overall in a pro career that began in 1975.

She has nothing left to accomplish, except one more victory to make the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Alcott, 36, said there will be more relief than exultation when she wins her 30th tournament--and she has no doubt she will.

She gets her final opportunity of the year when she tees off today in the Los Coyotes Country Club LPGA Classic. Alcott said she doesn’t plan to follow the tour to Japan and won’t compete again until next March.

“This one win is all that anyone talks to me about,” Alcott said. “It’s going to happen--probably when I least expect it, but it will happen.”

She’s caught up in a situation in which she is trying to live up to other people’s expectations, and that doesn’t suit her.

“If I can win, the pressure will be alleviated, but it’s not any kind of excitement,” Alcott said. “I’ve never tried to win to attain a number, or for other people to get me into some thing. That goes against my nature.

“I’ve done it because I want to win. I’m not the kind of person who achieves under other people’s expectations. I achieve under my own. That’s why this win (30th) will be one of the more difficult for me, because it’s other people’s expectations.”

Alcott’s best finishes this year were twice tying for eighth place. She hasn’t won since the Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament in 1991, her third victory in that event.

“It’s not the golf I’m used to or capable of playing,” she said. “The last few weeks I’ve played exceptionally well, tee to green. It’s just one of those years that I haven’t put the whole thing together. You know--the putting, the mental, the chipping.”

Alcott began playing on the tour when she was 18.

“It’s an interesting time in my career when I’ve done something nonstop for so long and have played since I was 8 years old. It’s very difficult to keep your motivation up,” she said.

“You don’t want to practice as hard, you don’t want to hit as many balls, you don’t want to play as much. There’s a fine line between being really tournament ready and ready to compete.

“I don’t enjoy the traveling as much, and that’s a waning interest. However, I figure I’m going to go into next year--if I don’t win at Los Coyotes--and give it my best shot.

“One or two more tournaments won’t prove anything to me that I don’t already know. I don’t know how much more I can really do in golf.

“I do know from a personal standpoint I’m a winner and a champion, and it takes a lot more out of you not to win than it does winning.

“It’s frustrating for someone at my level, both personally and professionally, when I’m not playing up to my ability and, because I’m a sensitive person, it probably affects me more.”

So Alcott is not only playing against the field in any tournament, she is playing to secure a special niche in golf history.

“I’ve passed the point of wanting it (Hall of Fame) too much,” she said. “I think what is interesting is that I’ve been in contention to win four or five times this year and it just didn’t happen.

“But when it came down to the last nine holes, I was thinking about it. In my mind I’ve done everything I wanted to do except win the tournament that makes me a Hall of Famer.”

Alcott has a philosophical outlook on the Hall of Fame.

“A Hall of Famer in my mind has an exceptional record, but also has used their person and talent to make the world of golf and the world in general a better place,” she said.

“The LPGA is so proud of this ‘playability’ philosophy, but Betty Jameson is in the original Hall of Fame, and she won only 13 tournaments (actually 10). It’s really kind of archaic.”

Alcott was in an automobile accident earlier in the year.

“The accident half bothered my back, and it affected my turn for the first four or five months of the year,” she said.

Alcott, who lives in Santa Monica, has always pursued other interests when she wasn’t playing.

“I’m doing some charity work for City of Hope, and I’m a golf course design consultant,” she said. “And, don’t laugh, but I may be taking some acting lessons. I’d like to do some bit-part acting and also take some singing lessons.”

As far as her golf career goes, Alcott said she will continue to play as long as she enjoys it.

Obviously, it will be much more enjoyable when that elusive 30th victory is finally attained.

LPGA Notes

Amy Alcott warmed up for the Los Coyotes tournament by hosting a pro-am at Riviera Country Club Monday and her first shot of the day produced a hole in one with a six-iron on the sixth hole . . . Pat Bradley, who gained her 30th tournament victory at Los Coyotes last year to enter the Hall of Fame, will defend her title. Other prominent players in the field include Nancy Lopez, Betsy King, Meg Mallon, Beth Daniel, Danielle Ammaccapane, Colleen Walker and Michelle McGann. . . . Dottie Mochrie, who has won four LPGA tour events this year, is not entered. Neither is Patty Sheehan, who, like Alcott, needs one more victory to qualify for the Hall of Fame.