LOCAL GIRLS' GOLF HAVING GROWTH SPURT.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

The best time of the year is here for the area's improving girls' golf programs, and it might turn out to be their best time ever in their still- young interscholastic sport.

Six area leagues will send teams into the first round of the Southern Section team playoffs Thursday at Yucaipa Golf Club and River Ridge GC in Oxnard, and several have a good chance of qualifying for Monday's section final at Las Posas Country Club in Camarillo.

Golden League champion Quartz Hill of Palmdale, the Foothill League's terrific threesome of Valencia, Saugus and Hart of Newhall, and Westlake of the Marmonte League all could contend for section-final berths at River Ridge, where four of the 25 teams advance.

Area candidates loom even stronger in the Southern Section individual final, scheduled for Nov. 11 at Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs. Sarah Salvo, Mission League MVP as a Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks freshman this season, and Foothill League MVP Grace Woo of Burbank both reached the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur this year. Melanie de Leon of Saugus - the 2003 Daily News Girls' Golfer of the Year - reached the state final last season. And Amanda Goodman of Agoura has the area's best season score, a 4-under-par 30 at Westlake Village.

Dani O'Neil of Quartz Hill, Stevy Loy of Valencia, Faith de Guzman of Notre Dame and Alana Maiello of La Reina of Thousand Oaks are other strong entries at the section final, in which the top 22 finishers advance to Southern California Regional play Nov. 15.

Area postseason prospects are also bright in the City Section, thanks to the best team in Granada Hills history and top individual contenders at North Hollywood and Monroe of North Hills.

Undefeated Granada Hills - ranked No. 1 by the Daily News - is a heavy favorite to win a fourth consecutive City title in the section final scheduled for Monday at Balboa GC in Encino.

Granada Hills coach Steve Thompson, who has produced a City team champion every year the Highlanders have fielded a girls' golf team, has three strong candidates for the City individual title in Alyson Golditch, Gloria Park and freshman Angela Villela. All have had rounds of par or better this season and Villela was fourth in her age group at this year's Junior World Tournament.

Darlene Bognot of Monroe, one of 16 area girls who have combined for 29 rounds of par or better this season, nearly won City while playing for Franklin of Highland Park two years ago. Lalita Boonnoppornkul of North Hollywood was one of the area's top scorers as a sophomore in last year's wind-buffeted Southern California regional.

--Time marches on: Four years ago, Tiger Woods was wowing the golf world with a nine-victory season that included three consecutive majors. That breakout year of 2000 earned him, at age 24, a PGA Tour season record of $8,286,821 - a total that would have challenged for the career money lead a decade earlier.

No one had won nine times on tour since Sam Snead won 11 times in 1950, and only four other players ever had won as many as nine times in a year. Woods' performance produced a lot of talk of bar-raising and had a lot of people wondering if the rest of golf could catch up to him.

Probably none of them expected his main challenger to come from nearly the other side of the generation gap, but 41-year-old Vijay Singh is having a season comparable to Woods' magical campaign of 2000.

Singh won his ninth tournament of the year last week at the Chrysler Championship and in the process became the first player to move past $10 million in season earnings. If Singh wins this week at the PGA Tour Championship, he will join Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson as the only players to win at least 10 times in a year.

It's a testament to hard work by Singh and another reminder that age isn't the disadvantage it once was considered when players passed their 40th birthday. Singh won his first tour money title last year at 40 and at 41 moved past Woods as the No. 1 player in the world, before winning a ninth title and surpassing $10 million.

It adds interest to an always highly anticipated Tour Championship, where Woods will be in the field. And it will be marquee stuff next month at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, where Singh will play in Woods' annual Williams World Challenge.

--Names in the game: Saugus' de Leon, a two-time Foothill League MVP who has four rounds of par or better this season, has accepted a golf scholarship offer from Nevada. ... Fellow senior and league rival Woo of Burbank, also a two-time Foothill MVP, has accepted a scholarship offer from UNLV. ... Danny Hoffenberg, the Marmonte League MVP last season as a junior at Royal of Simi Valley, has accepted a scholarship offer from Fresno State. ... Former Westlake High star Charlie Wi, co-medalist in first-stage PGA Tour qualifying school at the Greg Norman Course in PGA West, tied for seventh in the Asian Tour's Sanya Open last week, shooting 73-67-65-69-244 to finish four shots off the lead.

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