DURHAM, N.C. -- If there is any doubt that Jenny Chuasiriporn wants to be just another student here at Duke, consider where she spent many of her nights prior to the basketball team's showdown in January against North Carolina.

She was in Tent No. 83, a 7-iron away from Cameron Indoor Stadium, waiting in line for a ticket like everyone else.

"Being at Duke is such a perfect environment for me," Chuasiriporn said as she sat outside the tent on a spring-like afternoon, the start of practice still a week away. "I just love being here. I love being a normal student."

With basketball players such as Elton Brand and Trajan Langdon walking around the campus, Chuasiriporn, 21, is certainly not the most recognizable of celebrities. But her visibility has increased dramatically since last summer.

Though she lost to Se Ri Pak in the longest sudden-death playoff in Women's Open history as well as to Grace Park in the final of the U.S. Women's Amateur, Chuasiriporn suddenly became one of the biggest names in her sport.

"When I look back, I find it hard to believe I did it myself," said Chuasiriporn. "If it wasn't me who did it, and somebody else, I'd be in awe of it too."

Her performances last year, which also included leading the United States to victory in the Women's World Amateur team championship in Chile, contributed to Chuasiriporn being named as one of 11 finalists for the prestigious Sullivan Award.

It has been presented annually since 1930 to the top amateur athlete in the country, when legendary golfer Bobby Jones was its first recipient. No golfer has been named since Lawson Little won it in 1935.

Chuasiriporn wound up fifth in the balloting for the award, won last month by Tennessee women's basketball star Chamique Holdsclaw. Chuasiriporn got more votes than either Brand or Georgia Tech golfer Matt Kuchar.

The second half of Chuasiriporn's final season at Duke began last week with a tournament in Tucson, Ariz., in which she tied for 22nd with rounds of 70, 74, and 77. It will conclude two days after graduation with the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla.

"She's been wanting a championship for a long time," said Duke women's coach Dan Brooks. "But a player at Jenny's level, setting a goal like that fires her up. The higher the stakes, the better she plays."

Making step to pros

Chuasiriporn will also get a taste of her future life when she and teammate Beth Bauer will play as amateurs in the Nabisco Dinah Shore -- the first major of the LPGA season -- March 25-28 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

It will be one of a possible four LPGA tournaments for which Chuasiriporn can receive a sponsor's exemption. Along with the Open, for which she is automatically exempt for finishing second as well as low amateur, Chuasiriporn will play mostly in Futures Golf Tour events this summer. If necessary, she will attend LPGA Tour qualifying school in the fall.

After wrestling with the idea of holding onto her amateur status through the U.S. Women's Amateur in August, Chuasiriporn thought it better she turn pro at the Open, which will be held June 3-6 at the Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss.

"The money isn't a concern," she said. "I think physically, mentally I'm ready. I'm preparing for Q school. I think it's important to have played under that pressure as a pro. Winning the Amateur would have been an honor too, but it's such a hard tournament. I've been really satisfied with the way I've played as an amateur."

Her play last summer leaves Chuasiriporn poised to cash in should she turn pro sooner rather than later. While the golf endorsement market has taken a severe hit as equipment stocks plummeted, Chuasiriporn is considered a player who can give some much-needed visibility to the LPGA.

An ace for LPGA

With only one American among last year's top five money winners, the LPGA is also in search of a player with Chuasiriporn's personality to help cultivate interest from fans and sponsors. The grace and humor with which she handled her defeat to Pak in the Open drew comparisons to the biggest star the LPGA has ever had, Nancy Lopez.

"She's a bright sign on the horizon," said Terry Wilcox, tournament director of the Nabisco Dinah Shore. "The tour will still thrive with the foreign players they have, but it certainly adds a personal reason to root when you have a player like Jenny."

Wilcox had never met Chuasiriporn, but feels he knows her after watching her play in the Open last summer on television.

"You can't get any better than to see her make that putt on Sunday," Wilcox said of the 45-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole of regulation that helped put her into the playoff. "Her look was one of: 'Did I really make that?' She has some humility, but she has that strong drive. You can see some stardom there."

Chuasiriporn knows that there might be resentment from veteran players if she signs a lucrative endorsement deal when she turns pro, as there was for Kelli Kuehne last year and for Phil Mickelson on the PGA Tour a few years back. Chuasiriporn and Brooks are currently starting to talk with prospective agents.

The aspect of Chuasiriporn becoming a commodity is an area of concern for Brooks.

"The thing she'll learn over the next two to three years is the business side," said Brooks. "Her golf's ready, but there's a lot more to it than that. She needs to pick the right people to surround herself with so she can focus on just playing golf."

Coming to grips

Her performance last summer at the Open might give Chuasiriporn the credibility Kuehne lacked among the pros, but the expectations will be enormous from the start.

"I think it'll be a burden," said Chuasiriporn. "With the time I need to compete, the expectations are going to be there all along. That's in the back of my mind [now]. I also have expectations on myself. I'm a little bit concerned. Hopefully it won't be such a grind when I get there."

What last year's performance did mostly was boost Chuasiriporn's confidence. While she had won her share of local and regional tournaments as a junior playing out of Hunt Valley Golf Club, it showed Chuasiriporn that her game was worthy of the national stage. Even losing badly to Park in the Amateur didn't dissuade her.

"For such a long time, finishing second in the Amateur or being in the Open pressure was a world away for me," she said. "I've been fortunate. Everything has come in baby steps for me, from junior golf on up. Every year I did a little better than the year before. It's no longer something out of the ordinary for me."

For now, and until she receives her degree in psychology, Chuasiriporn's world is not that much different than it is for other Duke seniors. She is taking a regular course load that consists of a senior seminar in psychology, biological anthropology, geology and anatomy of the lower extremities.

"We just dissected a human leg," said Chuasiriporn.

Her teammates say she is unfazed by the attention Chuasiriporn receives on campus and at college tournaments.

"She really is very unassuming," said Anne Cardea, a junior who caddied for Chuasiriporn for a couple of rounds at last year's Amateur. "She's just clueless about her performance. Most of the time, I'll tell her that somebody is staring at her and she'll say, 'No, they're not staring at me.' "

Not that Chuasiriporn doesn't mind some of the benefits. When she learned that members of Duke's women's golf team were going to be introduced at halftime of the game against Maryland, Chuasiriporn wasn't thinking about the large ovation she would receive.

"Great, that means I won't have to camp out," she said.

Pub Date: 3/02/99