A HIGHER STANDARD SORENSTAM HAS MORE RESPECT, EXPECTATIONS.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

The world's best female golfer arrives at El Caballero Country Club this week with a problem only Tiger Woods might understand.

Wacky as it sounds, Annika Sorenstam is in a slump.

It was the kind of crazy logic Woods had to endure in 2001, when he led the PGA Tour with five victories, including the Masters, to give him simultaneous possession of all four majors, only to have that kind of overwhelming success pale in comparison to his nine-win, three-major year of 2000.

Sorenstam, who won 13 times in 25 worldwide starts last year, is off to an 0-for-2 start this year. Sure, she's finished third and second in those two LPGA events, losing by a stroke last week in a bid for her fifth major title and third consecutive Kraft Nabisco Championship, but ...

Expectations, including her own, run high for Sorenstam, whose 19 LPGA victories over the past two seasons make her the marquee attraction in every event she enters, including the Office Depot Championship, which runs Friday through Sunday at El Cab in Tarzana.

The Office Depot has attracted a sterling field, including 19-time winner and four-time major champion Se Ri Pak, who edged Sorenstam in a thrilling final-round duel at last year's Office Depot and overtook her in the final round two weeks ago to win the Safeway Ping.

Kraft-Nabisco winner Patricia Meunier-Lebouc also is in the field, as are multiple major champions Laura Davies and Julie Inkster and rookie sensation Lorena Ochoa, who was third in the Kraft Nabisco.

But the player likely to draw the biggest crowds, again, will be Sorenstam, who has been the Woods of her tour in recent years and elevated the LPGA profile in the process. Her tour will get another giant publicity boost in May, when Sorenstam becomes the first woman in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event - courtesy of her sponsor exemption into the Bank of America Colonial.

More power to her, said Office Depot tournament host and Hall of Famer Amy Alcott, who believes Sorenstam should test her limits after dominating the LPGA the past two years.

``She is just phenomenal,'' Alcott said. ``She is just ... I'm not going to use the word automaton or a robot, but I mean, to play as consistently as she did, she's like a machine.''

Sorenstam, the only player to shoot 59 on the LPGA Tour, followed that a month later by making up 10 strokes in the final round to win the 2001 Office Depot at Wilshire Country Club. Soon, she will become the first woman since the legendary Babe Zaharias to play in a PGA Tour event.

And what makes the 32-year-old, five-time LPGA Player of the Year more intriguing is not that that she continues to get better but that she improves dramatically.

Two years ago, motivated by the strong play of then-Player of the Year Webb, Sorenstam increased her offseason training and led the 2001 tour with eight victories, one spiced by a round of 59 at the then-Standard Register Ping.

Sorenstam will be pushing hard again to win this week - ``I always come to tournaments if I feel I can win,'' she said last week - and she will be doing so at El Cab with the admiration of those who will be trying to deprive her of victory.

Pak, whose final-round 64 at the Safeway Ping enabled her to overcome a 67-66-65 start by Sorenstam, said Sorenstam's success on tour ``no question'' has helped make the competition work harder.

``She's a strong player, mentally strong and physically strong,'' Pak said, ``and her game - well, every single year she just improves a lot at the same time.''

Meunier-Lebouc added: ``She's the best out here, all together, all year long she's been the best.''

AT A GLANCE

What: Office Depot Championship, hosted by Amy Alcott

Where: El Caballero Country Club, Tarzana

When: Friday-Sunday, starting at 7 a.m. each day

Purse: $1.5 million ($225,000 to winner)

Tickets: $15 daily or $30 for three-day pass

Pro-Am: Today-Thursday (admission free)

Parking: $5 at Lake Balboa parking lot, 6335 Balboa Blvd., free shuttle service

TV: ESPN2 (Friday, noon-2 p.m.; Saturday, 3-5 p.m.; Sunday,2-4 p.m.)

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Annika Sorenstam will be looking for her first tour victory of the season when she competes in the Office Depot Championship.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

Box:

AT A GLANCE (see text)