MEN'S REMARKS ON SORENSTAM LANDING IN ROUGH.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

In reaction to Annika Sorenstam's announcement last week that she has accepted a tournament sponsor's invitation to play in an upcoming PGA Tour event, golf's top men have been choosing their words carefully.

I will, too. I'm trying to decide whether the men's comments would be best described as insincere, arrogant or patronizing.

``I hope when she comes in, she plays well,'' said Fred Funk, who leads the Nissan Open after an opening-round 65 at Riviera Country Club on Thursday. ``I'm going to be a big Annika fan that week because I don't want her to hurt the LPGA.''

Insincere. Every male pro says he wants Sorenstam to place high in the Bank of America Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, in late May. Of course, none of them wants her to place higher than him.

``I don't think it's right,'' Arron Oberholser, a men's tour rookie, said last week of Sorenstam's invitation. ``There's a men's tour and a ladies' tour. It's pretty black and white. That spot should go to someone who has gone through the ranks.''

Arrogant. Pro golf isn't medical school. It's entertainment and business. And a lot more fans are going to pay to watch Sorenstam than, say, Oberholser.

``I think it's great she's playing, but ... it will only be great for women's golf if she plays well,'' Tiger Woods said last week. ``If she puts up two high scores, it will be more detrimental than good.''

Patronizing. Neither Sorenstam nor any woman golfer needs to prove herself against men. The notion Sorenstam's performance should have any bearing on the women's tour's stature in the sports world is an insult.

By choosing to become the first women to play a men's tour event in 58 years, Sorenstam, 32, is carrying out the manliest act of courage we're likely to see on a pro golf course this season, no matter how knee-knocking the TV announcers think the Nissan's final putt will be Sunday.

Sorenstam, winner of 13 women's tournaments worldwide in 2002, holder of the LPGA season scoring record, the first of her gender to shoot 59, doesn't have to accept this challenge.

She's doing it, she said, because, ``I am curious to see if I can compete in a PGA Tour event.''

It should be obvious that given the strength factor - her 265-yard average drive would barely place her among the men's top 200 boppers - Sorenstam has no chance to win the Texas tournament, never mind that Colonial Country Club favors accuracy over length. Phil Mickelson's prediction that she'll ``definitely'' make the midway cut, and that she'll finish in the top 20, might have set an unfairly high bar.

In 1945, Babe Zaharias played the Los Angeles Open. She made the midway cut but shot 79 on Saturday and missed the second cut then in effect before the final round.

The risk for Sorenstam, a Swede living in the Lake Tahoe area, is that if she doesn't live up to the masculine sports world's lofty standards, she'll be ridiculed and the old bad stereotypes about women's lack of competitive instincts will be dredged up.

``If she plays poorly, it'll be bad for the LPGA,'' Funk said. ``But if she plays really well, people may say, `Hey, this girl is good, and they warrant attention.' ... I hope (people) don't put too much (significance) into it. But they are.''

Sorenstam, herself, acknowledged this danger weeks ago in discussing Suzy Whaley, the teaching pro who won a qualifier to play the PGA Tour's Greater Hartford Open in July.

``I hope people are educated enough to know she's a teacher,'' Sorenstam said of Whaley, who isn't an LPGA regular.

There's another risk in this for female athletes.

If Sorenstam does well, and is lauded for it, competing well against men could become a standard of excellence for women. Serena Williams will be expected to wage a tennis battle of the sexes. Lisa Leslie will be obliged to try out for the Clippers. Until it's no longer fun - or a TV ratings-grabber.

Only a few sports are set up for women to hang with men without contrived advantages. Julie Krone is sixth in the Santa Anita jockey standings. Shirley Muldowney won titles on the drag strip.

But Annika Sorenstam doesn't play one of those sports.

Whatever the men in the Nissan Open this week might think, whether Sorenstam can beat them should be irrelevant to the future of the LPGA.

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Photo:

(color) Annika Sorenstam will be the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event in 58 years when she tees it up at the Colonial in late May.

Yun Jai-hyoung/Associated Press