LOW NUMBERS NO MATTER THE AGE.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

The competition is getting better everywhere these days, and age doesn't seem to have much to do with it - at either end of the spectrum.

On Tuesday, area high school golfers Aaron Conrad of Thousand Oaks and Joe Greiner of Hart of Newhall each shot in the 60s for the fourth time this season - raising the 2004 area 60s total to a prodigious 40 rounds.

One days earlier, 46-year-old Joey Sindelar became the latest elder statesman to win on the PGA Tour, which produced 13 40-something winners last year. Another of his approaching-middle-age brethren, 41-year-old Vijay Singh, has won three times this year and is closing in on the No. 1 world ranking Tiger Woods has held for more than four years.

Also on Sunday, 68-year-old Bob Charles, the New Zealand native who won the British Open in 1963, entered the final round of the Kinko's Classic tied for first place in a tournament that could have made him the oldest winner in Champions Tour history and a winner in six decades.

Shortly after turning 50 last year, former USC great Craig Stadler stretched his birthday celebration into wins in back-to-back starts on the Champions and PGA tours.

And on Monday, Michelle Wie was voted Newcomer of the Year by the Laureus World Sports Academy in voting by 400 sports writers representing 70 countries. Wie, who has competed on the world's best men's and women's tours as an invited amateur, twice been a top-10 finisher in LPGA majors and nearly made the cut in an PGA Tour event, is still in ninth grade.

Is it the Pablum and the Geritol?

Brandon Christianson, the UCLA-bound Valencia High senior who shot a course-record-tying 62 at Ojai's Soule Park last year and has a best of 65 this season, offers an explanation for the younger scoremeisters.

``We're the first shadow of the Tiger Woods generation,'' he said. ``I expect scores will keep getting lower in the future.''

As for professional golf's newest oldest success story, Sindelar is convinced his best route to the long green is the short game.

He called his pursuit of improved chipping, pitching and putting skills ``a mission'' and sounded fervent about his quest after earning a winner's check for $1,008,000 at the Wachovia Championship.

At the beginning of every year, Sindelar said Sunday, he would tell himself, ``Tee to green, I know I could be a top-30 guy.''

But those skills weren't enough, he would learn.

``Tee to green has never been my downfall,'' he said. ``I've been getting beat in the short games. Even against the best ball-strikers, I still think they beat me with their superior short game, and that's the mission I'm on.''

Sindelar said the generosity of fellow touring pros, including Tom Pernice, Mike Hulbert and Davis Love III, who were willing to share their short-game theories and methods, has helped on what he called a two-year odyssey leading to his first tour victory since 1990.

What also helped was his willingness to finally accept the proof that was staring him in the face for most of his streak of 370 winless tour starts.

``Short game, it's absolutely the short game,'' Sindelar said. ``I don't know why it took me that long to understand that. I'm guilty like the amateurs that I play with in my group. They want to hit the ball like Vijay and rightly so. But that's not what brings the score down.''

At any age.

--Names in the game: Jacob Curtier, who helped College of the Canyons nearly win its fourth state community college championship Monday, earned a berth in the June 21-26 State Amateur at Pebble Beach by shooting 70 in a qualifier at The Alisal River Course. ...

Oak Park High graduate and two-time Tri-Valley League Player of the Year Brandon Beck has been named Freshman Golfer of the Year at Cal after averaging 74.5 through 22 rounds for the Golden Bears, who open NCAA Regional play next week at Sunriver, Ore. ...

Cheech Marin will host the fifth annual Trinity Classic, benefiting Trinity Children and Family Services, on Monday at Bighorn Golf Club. Information: [phone], ext. 264 or www.trinitycfs.org. ...

Former USC All-American Sam Randolph has joined a list of more than 30 past U.S. Amateur champions who will participate in the Aug. 29-30 Arnold Palmer Turning Point Invitational at the Country Club of Detroit. The event commemorates the 50th anniversary of Palmer winning the U.S. Open. ...

Westlake GC instructor Joe Buttitta is offering free 10-minute lessons during May as part of PGA Free Lesson Month, a national grow-the-game campaign. Buttitta called it ``a great opportunity for local non-golfers to come out and get introduced to the game of golf.'' He added, ``Existing golfers can focus on any area they want to improve.'' Information: [phone]. ...

--They said it: ``It's a day when you're not playing the targets, you're playing the wind. The wind is the target.''

- Frank Lickliter on second-round gusts at the Houston Open.

``If you can't play when you're favored, this game can be pretty tough on you.''

- UCLA women's golf coach Carrie Forsyth after her No. 2-ranked women's team won the Pacific-10 Conference title by 18 strokes.

``It was my last round as a 17-year-old, so I wanted to do it right.''

- Aree Song after taking the midway lead in the LPGA Chick-fil-A Charity Championship.

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

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ON THE GREEN