AFTER THREE WINS, DUVAL TAKES AIM AT SHARK.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE

The hottest golfer on the PGA Tour will be playing locally next week, when David Duval tees up in the Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

Duval, who was earning a reputation as the best player without a victory on tour, quickly is making up lost ground. The third-year player from Georgia Tech, who finished second seven times before getting his breakthrough victory Oct. 12, now has won three straight tournaments - including last week's season-ending Tour Championship.

Putting that streak in perspective, the last player to win four straight on the PGA Tour was Ben Hogan, in 1953.

Duval's streak boosted his PGA Tour earnings by more than $1.2 million, giving him with $1,885,308 for 1997. Only Tiger Woods, with $2,066,833 this year, has ever won more in any single year on the PGA Tour.

``Obviously, it's been an exciting month,'' Duval said Wednesday. ``I've played pretty well and even when things weren't going well, I hung in there. It makes for an easy week and puts you in position to win.''

Duval said all those close misses never bothered him, nor did the growing expectations that he should win - rather, he took it as a compliment that so many people believed in his ability.

He viewed those seven seconds - during a period when 25 other players recorded their initial tour victories - as just a matter of paying his dues.

``I knew it was all going to be beneficial in the long run,'' he said.

And when the victories started coming, he found he wasn't playing all that much better than when he was just missing:

``I holed a few putts and I held it together really well and and I got a few breaks,'' he said. ``And that's really the difference between winning and not winning.''

Duval's late surge is another boost for the Shark Shootout, which last week was able to add former U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen when Fred Couples dropped out for personal reasons. Janzen will team with Brad Faxon, and Duval is paired with Scott Hoch in the two-man team competition that runs Nov. 14-16 and includes alternate-shot, best-ball and scramble formats.

Other teams are defending champions Tom Kite and Jay Haas, John Daly/Fuzzy Zoeller, Craig Stadler/David Frost, Mark Calcavecchia/Andrew Magee, Peter Jacobsen/John Cook, Lanny Wadkins/Chip Beck, Scott McCarron/Bruce Lietzke and Steve Elkington and tournament host Greg Norman.

When Duval isn't on the course at Sherwood, he might be sneaking a peek at television. His father Bob, a rookie on the Senior PGA Tour, qualified for the senior Tour Championship and will be playing in that competition the same weekend at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

``It might even be more exciting for him than me,'' Duval said of his father, who only had a conditional exemption from qualifying this year and had to enter several Monday qualifiers for the chance to compete.

The elder Duval was 26th with two events to play and wasn't eligible for either (missing in a Monday qualifier for last week's Ralphs Senior Classic) and just did hold the 31st and final money spot for a berth in the Tour Championship.

``He kind of had to sweat it out,'' David said of his father. ``It's a heck of a story. He left a 28-year job as a club pro and earned full exempt status for his second year on tour.''

That would be two good stories for the Duval family this year.

And still champion.. . . Mike Hooper might not be able to get in as much long-drive practice as he hopes to this week at Vista Valencia Golf Course. He'll likely be interrupted a few times for congratulations - and maybe a few autograph requests.

Hooper, a 48-year-old former beach volleyball enthusiast, won his second straight national senior long-drive championship last week at CasaBlanca Golf Club in Mesquite, Nev., getting off a best of 371 yards in the final round.

Hooper won the $10,000 first-place money the hard way, drawing first in the hitting order for the five-man final and waiting to see if his best would hold up. It did, by 10 yards, to make him a repeat winner in the age 45-over RE/MAX North American Senior Long Drive Championship.

In preliminary rounds at Mesquite, Hooper had qualifying drives of 339, then 389 yards - needing at least 375 to advance in that second round. Finalists got six drives and were judged by the longest to stay on a 45-yard-wide fairway.

Pacoima-based Harrison Sports also figured at the championship, as 26-year-old Jason Zuback - using a Harrison graphite shaft - won the overall title with a finals-record drive of 412 yards, 2 feet, 3-1/2 inches.

Tis the season: The Shark Shootout is just the first of several made-for-television events scheduled for Southern California between now and the start of the 1998 professional tours.

The Skins Game will be played at Rancho La Quinta (Nov. 29-30), the Diners Club Matches at PGA West (Dec. 11-14) and the Lexus Challenge at La Quinta's Citrus course (Dec. 18-21).

Tiger Woods, Mark O'Meara, Tom Lehman and two-time defending champion Couples will play in this year's Skins Game, where $540,000 will be up for grabs in the 15th annual event.

The Lexus Challenge, started three years ago by Ray Floyd as a smaller, senior-tour version of the old Crosby Clambake, will include 12 Senior PGA Tour players and 12 celebrities in team play, with pairings determined by draw.

Senior tour players will be Floyd, Jim Colbert, Hale Irwin, Johnny Miller, Gil Morgan, Bob Murphy, Larry Nelson, Gary Player, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Jay Siegel, Dave Stockton and Lee Trevino.

Celebrity players will be Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, William Devane, Clint Eastwood, Glenn Frey, Ken Griffey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Matt Lauer, Matthew McConaughey, Chris O'Donnell, Joe Pesci and Don Shula.

Add Ralphs Classic: David Graham and Bobby Stroble had the right swing for the 192-yard, par-3 13th hole at Wilshire Country Club last week, but Stroble had the perfect timing.

When Graham hit a hole-in-one on No. 13 in Friday's first round of that senior tournament, he got a handshake. When Stroble did it on Sunday, he got a new Cadillac - which was awarded only for aces on the final day.