COLONIAL TEST SHOULD DRAW ANNIKA'S BEST.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Pressure is what you make it. Pressure is shooting 59 in competition or overcoming a 10-shot deficit to win in the final round. Real pressure is a lot more about doing it than talking about it or dealing with someone else's definition of success.

So look for Annika Sorenstam - who has shot 59 in competition, who has won from 10 shots back in the final round, as well as set or tied 50 LPGA records the past two seasons - to make the best of pressure today, when she becomes the first woman in 58 years to compete in a PGA Tour event.

The world's best female golfer sparked an immediate storm of interest four months ago by saying she would love to play in a men's tour event if asked. She was and that storm has increased to epic proportions, culminating in overwhelming media turnout at the Bank of America Colonial tournament, which runs today through Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas.

With 476 reporters on hand, the 114-player field is outnumbered more than 4-1, but it must seem like 476-1 to Sorenstam, whose presence is the biggest golf story of the year on the men's or women's tours.

In this case, the media crush might not shape the story as much as it reflects interest of golfers everywhere. Her decision to accept a sponsor's exemption and become the first woman since Babe Didrickson in 1945 to play in a PGA Tour event is a topic of conversation wherever golfers congregate and also has intrigued nongolfers.

Sorenstam is doing it for the best of competitive reasons - to test herself. She wants to see how she stacks up on the best tour in golf. She does not view this as carrying the standard of the LPGA, nor does she see it as male vs. female as much as Annika against the best.

It's a one-time shot that by the very nature of its brevity reduces Sorenstam's chances of accurately showing her potential. The half of the field that fails to make the cut each week on this tour routinely includes past tour winners and even multiple major champions.

Tiger Woods, whose dominance on the PGA Tour has been matched by Sorenstam's dominance of the LPGA Tour, says it would be a better indication of her ability if she would compete in four or five events.

But Sorenstam, who has 43 LPGA victories, including 13 last year, wants just this one chance, which she got when she was offered one of the tournament's 11 sponsor's exemptions in February.

She'll tee off in the best shape of her life because of a commitment to strength and endurance training that has left her not only the leading scorer on her tour (a 69.22 average) but also the LPGA's second-longest driver (averaging 275.4 yards).

Her presence no more hurts the financial opportunities of some left-out playing professionals than 2002 U.S. Ryder Cup players Phil Mickelson or Scott Verplank did when they won PGA Tour events as amateurs. Sorenstam probably will do more for both tours in terms of increased interest in golf no matter how she plays. That anticipated interest is reflected in USA Network's decision to televise every shot she makes from her 6:58 a.m. (PDT) tee-off today to the 36-hole cut that will advance the top half of the field and ties to weekend play.

Whether she makes that cut could depend as much on pin placement and the firmness of rain-softened greens as it will on Sorenstam's ability to hit accurate approach shots that will be longer than those needed by most players in the field, given the strength advantage of the men.

But few players on any tour hit the ball as straight as Sorenstam, so her misses might not end up in the troublesome rough at Colonial Country Club, originally made famous by another hard-working golfer, Ben Hogan, whose five wins in this tournament left Colonial dubbed Hogan's Alley.

Will she make the cut? The opinion here is she will. But whether she does or not won't shape her assessment of success. Sorenstam wants only to play well, regardless of where she places. It's a goal both reasonable and worth remembering for all of us.

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ON THE GREEN

- Dave Shelburne