GIRLS' GOLF HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GROW.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Better and better, and soon bigger and bigger?

That could be the situation for the Southern Section high school girls' golf playoffs next season, depending on how quickly a section league can turn in a written proposal for the 2006 season to start slightly earlier.

``We're looking for a proposal from a league, because leagues can make proposals,'' section commissioner Jim Staunton said of the prospects for an extra round of individual qualifying and the opportunity for more postseason participants next season.

``We really only need about four days in September,'' Staunton said after Monday's Southern California Regional championship at SCGA Golf Club in Murrieta. ``If we can get that in, then we can conduct the team playoffs before the individuals and have three divisionals for individuals.

``If we squeeze that in, now we have a wider field of kids to get in and then the very best of the best of that field will be the ones that play off ultimately for the championship.''

In the past, there has been no qualifying for the section final past league play, leading to some competitive league tournaments to determine individual postseason qualifiers and some good players being left out.

With the chance of divisional and championship postseason play for individuals next year, more players will get a chance to compete in the playoffs and one off day will be less likely to knock top players out early in the postseason.

Stevy Loy of Valencia, for example, qualified for the U.S. Women's Amateur and U.S. Girls' Junior Amateur this year but found herself on the bubble for advancement to regional play after shooting 81 in the section individual final - her first postseason event.

She wound up advancing when qualified section individuals double-qualified as members of regional team qualifiers, thus freeing up four provisional berths. Situations like that could happen no matter how many rounds of playoffs were conducted, but proven players have a better chance of advancing with an extra round of qualifying - which also accommodates late-bloomers like Loy's teammate, Tracy White.

White nearly didn't qualify for the Foothill League tournament and got into postseason only as the league's final qualifier, then shot a career-best 77 at regionals to come within two shots of a playoff for today's state championship.

An extra round of playoffs, demonstrating the growth of girls' golf in its eight seasons as a sanctioned section sport, will be a welcome and well-deserved addition and probably ease that burning in Staunton's ears.

``We've been having all sorts of talk with coaches, who will talk about the field for the individuals and the compression to try to get them all in,'' Staunton said. ``This way, they can play their way in and the matter is settled.''

--Lost Canyons celebrates: In conjunction with its five-year anniversary celebration, Lost Canyons Golf Club in Simi Valley is offering reduced rates on its Shadow Course. Until Dec. 23, golfers can play Tuesday through Friday, from 6:30 a.m. until noon, for $69 and for $49 after noon. Sunday rates on the Shadow will be $75 after 11 a.m. All rates include a cart (805-522-4653 or www.LostCanyons.com).

The special is part of the club's official re-opening for 36-hole play on the Shadow and Sky courses after fire, flood and winds took their toll on the facility, which was designed by Pete Dye with consulting assistance by Fred Couples.

Couples, who reworked some of Shadow's holes during the time that course was closed due to flooding, called it a privilege to collaborate with Dye on the original design and ``a thrill to be able to go back in and re-work some things after Mother Nature took out her wrath on the course.''

--Names in the game: Today's state championship at PGA of Southern California Golf Club in Beaumont could produce the first Triple Crown winner of Southern California girls' golf, as undefeated Torrance (13-0) has won the Southern Section and regional championships. The Tartars' bid for a season title sweep will be led by nationally ranked junior golfers Angela Park and Jane Rah, who were third and tied for fourth in Monday's regional.

Rah is a freshman who shot 69 in the Tartars' 14-stroke section title victory last week. Park is a senior who missed the section final because she was playing the Futures Tour qualifier in Florida, where she had a second- round 65 en route to a fifth-place finish.

The girls' state championship will be without a Daily News-area representative for the first time since the event resumed in 2003. Former Saugus star Melanie De Leon, who is leading Nevada in scoring as a freshman, qualified as an individual in '03 and Burbank alum Grace Woo (now playing for UNLV) was state runner-up last season.

Camarillo sophomore Robin Lee, who twice shot a school-record 32 for nine holes this season, came closest to getting a qualifying spot for an area player, shooting 76 Monday to miss a playoff by one stroke.

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ON THE GREEN

BY DAVE SHELBURNE