BATTLE OF THE SEXES IN GOLF.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Annika vs. Tiger?

It's not likely to happen on a golf course - barring a radical format change in the late-summer, prime-time television showdown that has given us the Shootout at Sherwood (Tiger Woods vs. David Duval) and Battle of Bighorn (Woods vs. Sergio Garcia) in recent years.

But Annika Sorenstam and Woods have been waging their separate wars upon professional golf's record books for much of this memorable 2001 season, with no apparent end in sight.

Sorenstam takes another swipe at LPGA Tour history starting today, when she opens play in the Longs Drugs Challenge at Twelve Bridges GC near Sacramento. If she prevails, for a fifth consecutive LPGA victory that would tie Nancy Lopez for the longest streak on the women's tour, the Swedish star will trod even closer to turf untouched by any pro golfer but Woods in more than a half-century.

With four consecutive wins in a stretch that has included her third LPGA major, the first 59 in LPGA history and eight other LPGA records in her last 11 rounds, Sorenstam is quietly approaching Woods' 1999-2000 accomplishment of winning six consecutive starts - the longest streak since Ben Hogan in 1948.

Different strokes, to be sure. Woods and his PGA Tour brethren play longer courses and tougher fields - against which Woods has won in his last three starts. One of those was the all-but-official-major Players Championship. His most-recent win was the Masters, giving him simultaneous and unprecedented possession of all four of men's major professional titles. He also has won five of the last six majors and six overall - in less than five full seasons on tour.

Woods, arguably the most-recognizable athlete in the world, has generated most of golf's headlines, appropriately so for the youngest player to complete a men's career grand slam - last July at age 24 in the British Open at St. Andrews. He is also first since Bobby Jones in 1930 to hold four major titles at once, Jones doing so when two of the majors were amateur championships.

Coming off a season in which he won nine PGA Tour events and set 27 tour records, Woods, a three-time Player of the Year, has been top 10 in six of eight starts this year. He leads the tour in wins with three and scoring, a 68.89 average.

Sorenstam, a three-time Player of the Year on the LPGA Tour, endured a disappointing-for-her 2000 season in which she won five times but placed second in earnings as seven-time winner Karrie Webb was named Player of the Year for a second consecutive year. Sorenstam has used all of that as motivation and come back with a 2001 season that compares favorably to what Woods has accomplished this year.

Boosted by increased offseason work in physical conditioning and on her short game, she has finished second twice and won four times in six 2001 starts and leads the LPGA in driving accuracy and greens in regulation (both better than 83 percent). She also leads the women's tour in scoring, a 68.43 average that dipped to 67.8 during her four-event winning streak, which has produced 11 of a possible 15 sub-70 rounds.

Woods, who has 27 career PGA Tour victories, has the huge advantage in length. But he and Sorenstam (27 LPGA victories) have been eerily similar in focus, iron-play accuracy and finding a way to win. Woods rallied from seven strokes down in the final seven holes to win the National Pro Am at Pebble Beach last year for his sixth consecutive victory. Sorenstam set an LPGA record last week at Wilshire Country Club, where she overcame a 10-stroke final-round deficit to win the Office Depot hosted by Amy Alcott.

It's not likely to happen, but put these two career money leaders on a tough and tight course, let them each play from the average distance of their respective tours, and how intriguing would it be to see them go head to head?

--Will do: Moorpark College golf coach Will Thurston is on a roll. First, selection to the state community college athletic Hall of Fame for his decade of success as the Raiders' softball coach. Then Wednesday, Moorpark's first Western State Conference tournament victory since reviving the men's golf program more than a decade after the Ventura County school won a state title in that sport.

``I've been here 20 years and this ranks up there with my top three experiences,'' Thurston said Wednesday after his Raiders held off defending conference and state champion College of the Canyons to secure a three-stroke victory at Tierra Rejada GC.

Thurston isn't sure if his young Raiders - whose top four players are freshmen - have enough talent or time to catch Canyons in conference this comeback season. But he believes they could earn one of the WSC's three berths for the Southern California Regional that will advance two teams to next month's state final.

``I think right now they are too strong and too deep,'' Thurston said of the Canyons Cougars, whose strong freshmen and returning redshirt players have allowed them to continue to succeed despite losing most of their top players from last year.

``They're where you want to be with a strong junior college program - rolling over with new and experienced players every year. That's what we expect to do in the future.''

ON THE GREEN

PGA TOUR

Houston Open at The Woodlands, Texas

Course: TPC at The Woodlands (7,018 yards, par 72)

Schedule: Today through Sunday

Purse: $3.4 million, $612,000 to winner

TV: The Golf Channel and Fox Sports Net (today and Friday, 1-3:30 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday 1-3 p.m.; Sunday noon-3 p.m.)

LPGA TOUR

Longs Drugs Classic at Lincoln, Calif.

Course: Twelve Bridges GC (6,388 yards, par 72)

Schedule: Today through Sunday

Purse: $800,000, $120,000 to winner

TV: The Golf Channel: (Thursday-Friday 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday 1:30-4:30 p.m.)

SENIOR PGA TOUR

Las Vegas Senior Classic at Las Vegas

Course: TPC of Summerlin (6,963 yards, par 72)

Schedule: Friday through Sunday

Purse: $1.4 million, $210,000 to winner

TV: PAX (Friday 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; and CNBC (Saturday-Sunday 3-5 p.m.)

MONEY LEADERS

PGA 

1 Tiger Woods $3,263,857

2 Phil Mickelson $1,892,502

3 Joe Durant $1,778,672

4 Mark Calcavecchia $1,513,033

5 Davis Love III $1,468,050

LPGA

1 Annika Sorenstam $756,448

2 Karrie Webb $325,520

3 Se Ri Pak  $323,062

4 Dottie Pepper $289,885

5 Lori Kane $254,205

PGA SENIOR

1 Larry Nelson $810,960

2 Mike McCormack $726,562

3 Gil Morgan $637,718

4 Jose Maria Canizares $611,387

5 Allen Doyle $503,397

SPOTLIGHT

ANNIKA SORENSTAM

The three-time major champion and this year's top-ranked women's professional tied an LPGA record with her fourth win in as many scheduled tour events last week at Wilshire Country Club, in the Office Depot hosted by Amy Alcott, when she overcame a 10-stroke deficit in the final round, then won a one-hole playoff with Mi Hyun Kim.

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ON THE GREEN (see text)