FOR HERRONS, WINNING GENETIC.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE

Tim Herron can claim much of the glory in his decorated golf family, including three PGA Tour victories.

But the 30-year-old, fourth-year tour pro known as Lumpy, whose father and grandfather both played in the U.S. Open, found himself bettered again last summer by baby sister.

Alissa Herron, 27, won the family's first U.S. Golf Association title when she outlasted Leland Beckel 1-up in the 13th U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Championship - with Lumpy as her caddie.

``I've only beaten Tim in two golf-related things,'' said Alissa, a three-time Minnesota state amateur champion. ``I had a hole-in-one before he did and I won a USGA championship before he did.''

She'll be defending her title next month at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, remembering all that her hefty brother meant to her during that inaugural national title.

``I had to buy him a lot of dinners,'' she said, ``and did that ever get expensive, because he does like to eat.''

But Lumpy also provided invaluable confidence for his sister during an anxious week in which she shot 77-76 on the first day to make the medal-play cut, then won two matches each of the next two days to set up her 18-hole final with Beckel.

``Every day I didn't know whether to check out of my room or not,'' she said, recalling how she got increasingly more nervous as she continued to survive. ``I'd ask him and he'd say like, 'No, we're winning - I went 36 yesterday and I'm planning on going 36 today.' '' Turned out, Alissa kept her nervousness along with her room.

``I remember having dinner the last night (before the championship) and I'm getting sick to my stomach (with nerves) . . . and I asked him, 'You've won so many times - what do you think the night before?'

``And he goes, `I thought of nothing.'

``And I told him, 'You're talking to a woman here - a woman can't think of nothing! That's the hardest thing she could possibly do, is think of nothing.' ''

But Lumpy's calming influence took hold in the final, when Alissa took charge after losing the ninth hole and regrouped for a winning birdie out of a fairway bunker on No. 1.

``That was probably the turning point,'' Beckel said afterward.

``What an honor it is to be a USGA champion,'' Herron said last week during a visit to Big Canyon. ``The greatest thing is I get to play in the Mid-Amateur for the rest of my life, and what that means to me is I get to play great golf courses from here on until I'm 90.''

The Mid-Amateur, for women aged 25 and over, became the 13th national championship offered by the USGA when it made its debut at Southern Hills in 1987. It came about after the USGA determined it was becoming increasingly more difficult for female amateurs to compete equitably against college players. A career amateur has not won the U.S. Amateur since Carol Semple Thompson in 1973.

A record field of 533 entered this year, and Herron will face approximately 130 survivors on Oct. 3-8 at par-72, 5.972-yard Big Canyon, a course considerably more difficult than that short yardage would indicate.

Admission is free to the event, which is open to all qualifiers who reach their 25th birthday by Oct. 2 of this year and have a handicap index not exceeding 9.4.

--Names in the game: Candie Kung of USC is the nation's top-ranked women's player in the preseason Mastercard Collegiate Golf Rankings. USC teammate Leila Chartrand is No. 17, and Pepperdine's Michael Beard ties for 18th in the men's rankings. In team rankings, the USC women open No. 4 and UCLA No. 18. The USC men open No. 22. . . .

Anthony Kim of Studio City helped the Southern California boys team place first in the Junior Americas Cup team matches at Sahalee Country Club in Washington, site of the 1998 PGA Championship.

Kim, a sophomore at Campbell Hall, joined Jay Choi of Buena Park, Ryan Cole of Fullerton and Daniel Im of La Mirada on a Southern California team that won by eight strokes in the three-round, age 17-under competition including teams from 11 states and Canada. . . .

Richard Chavez of Santa Barbara GC has been named SCPGA golf professional of the year. Chavez, 48, a 24-year-PGA member, has spent 19 of those years at the Santa Barbara muni course and has been nominated by his peers for this award four times in the past five years.

ON THE GREEN

PGA TOUR

SEI Pennsylvania Classic at Paoli, Pa.

Course: Waynesborough Country Club (6,900 yards, par 71).

Schedule: Thursday through Sunday.

Purse: $3 million.

Winner's share: $540,000.

TV: ESPN (Thursday-Friday, 4-6 p.m.; Saturday, 3-5 p.m.; Sunday, 2-5 p.m.)

SENIOR PGA TOUR

Kroger Senior Classic at Mason, Ohio

Course: The Golf Center at Kings Island, Grizzly Course (6,639 yards, par 70).

Schedule: Friday through Sunday.

Purse: $1.4 million.

Winner's share: $210,000.

Television: ESPN (Friday, 2-4 p.m.; Saturday, 5-6:30 p.m.; Sunday, 5-7 p.m., tape).

LPGA TOUR

Next tournament: Safeway LPGA Golf Championship, Sept. 22-24, Portland, Ore.

SPOTLIGHT

WAYNESBOROUGH

The winner of the inaugural SEI Pennsylvania Classic at Waynesborough Country Club in Paoli, Pa., will definitely not be Tiger Woods, who has generously left room at the trough for everyone else. The winner will be the player who can bleed the least on putting surfaces that have the undulations of a belly dancer. A downhill putt here is a thing of terror. So where you do not want to be, ever, is above the hole. And if you find yourself there? ``I think you're just hoping to two putt, for sure,'' said Tom Lehman. ``You know, there's some spots where you can put it off the green. There's some spots where you can't get it close. So I think if you get in that position, you just kind of take your medicine and go.''

SCORING AVERAGE

PGA 

1. Tiger Woods 67.64

2. Ernie Els 69.37

3. Phil Mickelson 69.38

4. Paul Azinger 69.59

5. David Duval 69.60

LPGA

1. Karrie Webb 69.79

2. Annika Sorenstam 70.48

3. Juli Inkster 70.72

4. Pat Hurst 70.75

5. Dottie Pepper 70.85

SENIOR PGA

1. Gil Morgan 69.02

1. Bruce Fleisher 69.04

3. Hale Irwin 69.05

4. Larry Nelson 69.17

5. Tom Watson 69.50

CAPTION(S):

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Box: ON THE GREEN: PGA TOUR (see text)