BOOK OFFERS LOOK AT GREATEST GOLF SHOTS.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

At the soft-compression core of every golfer is the blissful memory that sustains him, every Tiger at Augusta National, every duffer at Van Nuys and every good amateur in between.

It's plugged deep in his kikuyu-covered soul, the memory of some long- ago stroke of genius that tells him how good he can be and keeps him clattering back to the course.

What unites all golfers might be what sets golf apart from every other sport.

``I know I can't return Pete Sampras' serve. I know I can't hit Eric Gagne's fastball,'' said Ron Cherney, a very good amateur player who is the 2000 and '03 champion of El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana. ``But I know I can hit a shot as well as Tiger Woods. That's the great thing about golf.''

Until Cherney had a brainstorm, the happiest memories of golf's finest players were scattered like so many lost Titleists.

Then the Encino resident and San Fernando dentist began mailing out letters asking the game's biggest names to describe the greatest shots they ever hit.

He and co-author Michael Arkush have bound together 80 of the best replies in the most readable, entertaining and weirdly inspiring book of the golf season, ``My Greatest Shot'' (Harper Collins, $19.95).

``I thought it would be nice to have letters from these guys,'' said Cherney, 56, who collects golf memorabilia. ``Some friends said, `This would make a great book.' ''

It's a page-turner that arrives on the shelves just in time for this week's Masters.

I praise it, by the way, as somebody who thinks 99 percent of golf books are a good sit spoiled.

Not surprisingly, many of the pros' greatest shots were ones that clinched Masters victories and other major championships - including six of the eight shots named by Jack Nicklaus, who couldn't bring himself to cut his list down to one.

Many players named shots that would otherwise have faded from history, from the 6-iron bunker shot that gave Tiger Woods the 2000 Canadian Open (not one of his major title-winning shots), to the 6-iron at Kingsmill in 2001 that earned Rich Beem seventh place and let him keep his PGA Tour card (not one of the shots that won him the 2002 PGA Championship), to Esteban Toledo's chip-in to pass the PGA Qualifying School, to Judy Rankin's 110-yard driver to win a closest-to-the-pin contest at age 7.

And several described one-of-a-kind shots: Ben Crenshaw turning over a 9-iron and chipping left-handed from beside a tree to save his 1986 Buick Open win. Greg Norman's literally off-the-wall bank shot onto the green at St. Andrews' Road Hole to save a Dunhill Cup match. And a bleeping brilliant shot by David Feherty, also at the Road Hole during a Dunhill Cup match sudden-death playoff.

Unsure where to aim his drive, Feherty was staring out at the ``Old Course Hotel'' sign on the distant building when he heard his caddy suggest: ``Hit it at the `F' in `Hotel.' ''

``There is no `F' in 'Hotel,' '' Feherty replied.

``No, no, no, you idiot,'' the caddy shot back. ``I said, `Hit it at the effing hotel.''

Feherty hit the drive to order, setting up a 3-iron to the green and a Dunhill Cup triumph for Ireland.

Cherney and Arkush print the golfers' replies - letters, faxes, e-mails - as they came in, spelling errors and all. It turns out a lot of golfers have stationary embossed with their names, or their companies' names, or their agents' companies' names. Some players answered right away with long, philosophical letters. Woods had to be prompted three or four times before sending a one-paragraph note.

Cherney's promise to donate proceeds to golf charities made the pros more responsive.

``It's a simple book. It's a simple story,'' said Cherney, a Toronto native who went to Boston University on a hockey scholarship, plays golf to a 2 handicap and has five holes-in-one. ``They (the golfers) did the work for me.''

Cherney noticed how many pros chose shots they had no confidence of pulling off, and how many of those shots changed the course of the man's or woman's life.

``You wouldn't think one shot could have that much impact,'' he said over lunch at El Caballero, ``but it can.''

I noticed how few of the entries are 300-yard drives, pin-rattling 2-irons or putts that could be read only by a high-priced caddy. A lot of the ``greatest'' are wedges, chips or putts that you or I could hit. Maybe did hit once on the best day of our golfing lives, though not with a million dollars on the line.

The inspirational message seems to be that each of us has a ``greatest'' shot in our past and a greater shot in our future.

Cherney, by the way, seems to have another book in him.

``What I'd love to ask is, `What's the shot you'd like to do over?' '' he said. ``There's a lot more failure in this game than success.''

MASTERS

Course: Augusta National Golf Club.

Schedule: Today-Sunday.

TV: USA (Today-Friday, 1-1:30 p.m., 5-7:30 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday, 12:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.)

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

(color) Ron Cherney is co-author of ``My Greatest Shot,'' a book of 80 stories from golf's best players recalling their greatest shots.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

Box:

MASTERS (see text)