The niece of George Archer, a PGA and Senior Tour Pro who won the Masters in 1969, Lana grew up surrounded by golf. But she herself didn't take up the game until a couple of years ago. Although she hit a ball now and then, she never played because her father -- who caddied occasionally for his famous brother-in-law-- didn't believe women should be golfers.

As Lana tells it, her father John Mojas, disapproved of a certain kind of woman one sometimes sees, "rhinestones glittering, perfume wafting a fairway away, hitting the the ball 25 yards and cackling."

He might have softened if he could see the example Lana sets. She is elegant in an off-hand sort of way, wearing paisley shorts, a creamy sweatshirt and saddle oxfords. Blonde bob tucked under a straw cowboy hat, her brown eyes sparkle as she wisecracks with her playing partners today at Mira Vista Country Club in El Cerrito. Certainly he could be proud of her long drives and of her extraordinary successes in competition even as a novice golfer.

While Lana has abandoned her father's attitude about women golfers, she inherited his reverence for the game. She also disdains the kind of golfers who drink beer, smoke cigarettes and drive a few feet in their cart. "Anything that you can do while drinking and smoking isn't a sport," Lana says.

Lana feels golf is to be taken seriously. "I love the hush of the fairway in the dew-wet morning,"she says. "It's like being in church. It's here that I learned the values that I've had since I was a child: to be quiet, honor the rules and respect the etiquette, such as don't talk out of turn or interrupt someone. It's a kinder, gentler world...a sacred place."

The game has become so central to her that her family and friends give her only golf-related items for holidays; for her fortieth birthday this year she received a bouquet with a sign saying Par 40, 0 handicap. Golf not only helps her experience the present through appreciating the beauty around her but it also connects her to her past.

As a little girl, Lana remembers sitting on her dad's shoulders to watch Uncle George sink the putt that won his first PGA Tournament. As a teenager in 1969, the family television was the center of attention as she watched the Master's green jacket being slipped on her uncle's tall frame and Alan Sheppard hitting a golf ball on the moon.

Much later when her father was enduring chemotherapy, Lana still went with him to the golf course. He believed being out on the course would help his body heal. She understands the solace he found there. On the course, she says, "You are surrounded by subtle visual pleasure: the undulating turf, the grain of the grass, the gradations of the color green; the smell of the freshly cut grass; the feel of the wind and sun on your skin and of course, those sounds: the well-struck drive and that enormously pleasing sound of the ball going ker-plunk in the cup."

But it wasn't until after her father died of cancer that Lana's best friend invited her to sit in on a lesson. As Lana was watching, she was overcome with a compelling desire to hold the club, to hit the ball, to play golf. She had the overwhelming feeling: "I can do this. There's nothing stopping me."

She took six lessons in three weeks, played nine holes, shot a disappointing 77 and realized how much there is to learn about playing golf. But by the third time she played 18 holes, she qualified to join the Tilden Park Ladies' Club in Berkeley.

A few months later, Lana made a birdie on the 16th hole at Tilden. On the next hole, she shot a 10 and her playing partner diagnosed her as being afflicted by "Post-Birdie Syndrome." She decided then that she needed to work on the mental aspect of the game as well as the mechanical and found INNER GOLF, a program designed to improve the mental game through relaxation training, hypnotherapy and developing a pre-and post-shot routine.

"Money spent on clubs, lessons and great golf gimmicks is wasted useless accompanied by a good mental attitude," Lana says." I didn't think that could be bought until I was introduced to INNER GOLF."

Lana was fortunate to realize the importance of working on her mental game before she had developed many self-defeating mental habits. She learned to relax, understand and apply some basic principles of the mind and use her mental routine.

Now she plays lightly, fast and focused with a deep enjoyment that is rare. Her index has dropped by 16 strokes since finding the INNER GOLF program. And she easily brushes off the less than perfect shots. Unlike many people, she is unwilling to use golf to abuse herself by thinking critical things like "you stupid idiot" after a "bad" shot. "That's abuse of the game," she says.

By February of 1994, when she'd only been playing for 10 months, Lana felt ready to take her new sport out for a test drive. She qualified to compete in the six-week San Fransisco City Championship, the oldest and largest amateur tournament of its kind in the U.S. held at Lincoln and Harding Parks. She was very aware that her uncle had started his career at Lincoln Park, and felt there was some lingering legacy for her there.

The tournament was exciting and she felt her competitive spirit come alive. "I can really feel the juices flowing against a 19- or 20-year old college girl, " Lana says.

But on the final day, on the 17th hole at Harding, came the heartbreak. It was 6:30 PM. She'd been playing all day, starting at 10:00 in the morning. She had to chip over a sand trap: the pin placement was close to the trap so it was a tight shot. She chilly dipped. Emotionally, that was the end of the tournament for her. There was one more hole to go but she'd given all she had to give.

All the next year, Lana worked on filling her mental and physical reservoir by continuing to work on both her mechanics and with INNER GOLF and in 1995, she competed in the City Tournament again.

And on the 17th hole, she found herself facing the exact same shot. This time she executed a perfectly crisp chip shot, landing right next to the hole and tapped it in for par. " What a personal triumph!" says Lana, "I'm thrilled that all of my hard work carried me through."

The tournament's conclusion was bittersweet, however. At the beginning of the last round, Lana's opponent was 10 minutes late and joined her on the 1st green. The rules state that if a competitor arrives more than five minutes late, he loses the first hole. Inexplicably, the Tournament Director made a judgement call allowing the late arrival to play the first hole--which she won.

At the end of eighteen holes, the two players would have been tied but because Lana's opponent was given the first hole, she won the tournament.

"I was disappointed but I'm also excited that I did so well playing scratch golf against a better-ranked competitor, " Lana says. "It gives me hope for next year."

It has been several years now since Lana's father died and she feels that the part of him that wouldn't approve of her playing golf died with him--- and she often calls on the essence of who he was for help.

On one particularly challenging putt, she thought "OK Dad, I need you." She sank it but as the ball dropped in the cup, she had the distinct feeling that he was saying to her "All right but don't bug me again. You can do this yourself now."