AREA STARS TAKE ANOTHER SHOT.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

If area golfers Chris Zambri and David Berganio Jr. need any extra emotional boost today in their return to the U.S. Open, they need only recall what happened the last time they played in the national golf championship.

Berganio - the former Alemany High star, 1993 Pac-10 Conference MVP at Arizona and two-time U.S. Public Links champion - shot 69 in the first round of the 1996 Open at Michigan's Oakland Hills Country Club and finished 16th that year.

Zambri, the ex-Westlake High and USC standout whose 10-under-par 61 is the course record at Thousand Oaks' Sunset Hills Country Club, similarly found himself among the early leaders at the 1995 Open at Shinnecock Hills. His first-round 70 left him four strokes out of first place. A second-round 81 prevented him from making the cut, but Zambri continues to draw confidence from that opening round, which put him ahead of eventual champion Corey Pavin.

Zambri and Berganio, both Nike Tour performers, play in this week's 99th Open at North Carolina's Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, on the famed, Donald Ross-designed Pinehurst No. 2.

They qualified last week at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Zambri taking medalist honors at 4-under-par 138 and Berganio sharing second at 140. They also had the best two 18-hole scores in that 36-hole qualifier, Zambri shooting 66 and Berganio 67 in the morning round at par-71, 6,830-yard El Cab.

Both stayed sharp in last week's Nike Tour Cleveland Open, tying for 10th with 6-under-par totals of 282. It was the second-best score on tour this year for both. Zambri had a 12-under-par 276 while finishing 11th at the Monterrey Open, where Berganio's 15-under 273 earned him third place.

Downtown Browne: Another former area golfer playing at Pinehurst, Occidental College graduate Olin Browne, similarly can call upon past Open success for inspiration this week.

Browne, who ranks third in all-time Nike Tour victories with four and has been a PGA Tour member since 1995, finished fifth in the '97 Open at Congressional, where his 282 total was six strokes behind champion Ernie Els.

Browne enters this week's Open as one of the PGA Tour's hotter players. He has won twice in less than a year - at the Greater Hartford Open in July and Colonial last month - and finished third in Jack Nicklaus' Memorial tournament two weeks ago.

Knight, again: Helen Knight of El Caballero Country Club improved on one of the nation's more remarkable club golf achievements Tuesday when she won the El Cab women's championship for a 37th time in 42 years.

Knight, who took her first golf lesson as a University of Michigan coed more than 50 years ago from 1927 U.S. Open and 1931 British Open champion Tommy Armour, won El Cab's first 32 women's championships, from 1957-89. She won again in '91 and launched her current four-year title streak in '96.

This year, she held off a field of nearly three dozen, finishing with a four-round total of 351 to win by four strokes over runner-up Lynn Edelson, who was tied with Knight entering the final round.

Back to the Bruins: Cal State Northridge women's golf coach Carrie Leary, who helped UCLA win the NCAA women's golf championship in 1991, will return to her alma mater as head coach this fall. She was selected Friday to replace Jackie Tobian-Steinmann, who coached Leary at UCLA and will retire June 30 after coaching the Bruins for 22 years.

Leary, who started the Northridge women's golf program three years ago, produced two All-Big Sky Conference players (Cheryl Musser and Kelley Carlson) and directed the Matadors to a third-place finish in this year's conference championship.

Tiger topped twice: How fast is high school golf improving? Two of Tiger Woods' championship records were surpassed in as many tournaments at the end of this year's Southern Section season.

First, University (Irvine) junior Brian Sinay shot 7-under-par 65 to win the section final at Palm Springs' Canyon Country Club. Then, Stanford-bound senior Ron Won, also from University, shot 6-under-par 66 in winning the CIF/SCGA championship at SCGA Members' Club last week. Woods had set both records in 1991 while competing for Western (Anaheim) High.

Looking ahead: Royal High junior Roy Moon, who placed fifth in the Southern Section final and second in the CIF/SCGA championship - shooting 3-under-par 69 in both events - is the early favorite to become the area's top golfer next season.

Moon shot eight sub-par rounds in his final 12 high school competitions this season. His closing charge lowered his own school-record season scoring average and dethroned two-time defending Marmonte League J.T. Kohut, bound for UCLA on a full golf scholarship.

THIS WEEK

USGA 

U.S. Open

Site: Pinehurst, N.C.

TV: Channel 4 (Today-Friday, noon-2 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.) and ESPN (Today-Friday, 8 a.m.-noon and 2-3:30 p.m.).

Last year: Lee Janzen won at Olympic in San Francisco, shooting 73-66-73-68 for an even-par 280 total.

LPGA TOUR

LPGA Classic

Site: Atlantic City, N.J.

Schedule: Friday-Sunday.

TV: ESPN2 (Today, 7-9 a.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.).

Last year: Annika Sorenstam shot 66-65-65 for a tournament-record 17-under 196 total.

SENIOR PGA TOUR

Southwestern Bell Dominion

Site: San Antonio.

Schedule: Friday-Sunday.

TV: None.

Last year: Lee Trevino ended a 33-event winless streak, closing with a 5-under 67 for a two-stroke victory.

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BOX: THIS WEEK (see text)