IT'S A RUSH FOR UCLA WOMEN.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Congratulations, Carrie Forsyth, on coaching UCLA to the 2004 NCAA women's golf championship.

Your reward: a 2005 season opener against the team that nearly won the NCAA men's championship.

Forsyth loves the challenge, especially since it was the UCLA men's team that almost won the title last June.

Coach O.D. Vincent's men's team, which finished second to California, opens the season as host of the inaugural Gold Rush California Collegiate Golf Showcase, a 30-team event Sept. 17-18 on the Champions and Legends courses at PGA of Southern California.

``This is a tournament of inclusion and opportunity, something our sport needs to perpetuate,'' said Vincent, who included invitations to area men's teams from The Master's College and Cal State Northridge as well as the UCLA women's team.

The women might not be strong enough to challenge for the title in a field including 29 men's teams, but Forsyth is looking forward to the experience her team will get from that kind of competition. UCLA women will hit from the back tees with the men.

``I think it's going to be good fun and I think it can be a benefit to some of our players,'' she said. ``I think as much variety of competition as you can come up with keeps it fun.

``It's going to be challenging, but we really feel like we can take something positive out of this.''

The UCLA women already have plenty to feel positive about, returning the national women's Coach of the Year in Forsyth, who was Carrie Leary when she coached at CSUN. Three All-Americans also are back, including a strong national Player of the Year candidate in Charlotte Mayorkas, who will get a head start in mixed gender competition.

Mayorkas, who won last month's State Women's Amateur title by 12 strokes, is playing in next week's Pechanga State Open, where she will be the only woman in a field that includes 155 men.

``She got in with the exemption we have for an NCAA champion,'' State Open tournament director Joe Kolina said. ``We didn't expect to have a women's champion apply, but we're happy to have her in the field.''

Forsyth is just as happy to have Mayorkas back for one more year,which might turn out to be at least as good as the Bruins' 2004 championship season.

Mayorkas and Susie Matthews are returning first-team All-Americans for the Bruins. Hannah Jun earned second-team All-American recognition as a freshman. Incoming freshman Amie Cochran was medalist at this month's U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, and three-year mainstay Melissa Martin is back for her redshirt senior season after sitting out last year.

UCLA also returns senior Yvonne Choe and adds freshman recruits Briana Loyear and Vanessa Brockett, the four-year Campbell Hall of Studio City standout. Brockett won the Los Angeles City women's championship twice after earning all-area boys team honors because Campbell Hall had no girls golf team.

``I don't think we have a weakness on our team,'' Forsyth said. ``I don't know where we're going to be ranked, but I think we'll be top three for sure. We are a great team, no question.''

Men's coach Vincent - another Bruin who will be competing in the State Open - is happy to have a great team in the Gold Rush, and he's just as happy to help promote diversity in the sport.

``We wanted to create an opportunity for many California teams to compete against each other regardless of division, conference or gender,'' he said. `"We will identify the best players in California.''

The best will get a test on the 7,303-yard Legends and 7,223-yard Champions courses, but Forsyth is looking to what that might mean well past this tournament.

``Ultimately, I want our team to come away from the Gold Rush with a competitive edge,'' she said of the three-round event. ``I think 54 holes competing against a quality men's field will require my team to use all of its physical and mental ability. It will test them in a way that most have never experienced and make them tougher and stronger.''

Now there's a sobering thought for her Bruins' regular-season opposition.

--Names in the game: Michael Turner of Sherman Oaks shot 65 to take medalist honors in a U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier at Woodland Hills Country Club. Tim Hogarth of Northridge, who led all area players in last week's U.S. Amateur Championship, reaching the third round of match play, was second in the U.S. Mid-Am qualifier at 67 and will join fellow Cal State Northridge alum Turner in the Oct. 2-7 Mid-Am final at Sea Island GC on St. Simons Island, Ga. Spike Silver of Woodland Hills (69) and Steve Lass of Santa Barbara (71) took the other two berths. ...

Newly crowned U.S. Amateur champion Ryan Moore is the final qualifier for the Arnold Palmer Turning Point Invitational, scheduled for this weekend at Detroit Country Club as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Palmer's U.S. Amateur victory.

Thirty former U.S. Amateur champions will join Palmer in the event, teaming to create turning points in the lives of children in urban Detroit.

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