MINOR TOUR CERTAINLY IN MAJORS OFF THE TEE.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Tiger told us it was going to get like this.

The Nationwide Tour makes a Southern California stop this week at Empire Lakes Golf Course in Rancho Cucamonga, bringing with it many of those long hitters Woods predicted were on the way after he won his first of eight majors six years ago.

When Woods arrived on tour, he already was famous for driving length that remains outstanding. The difference now is, Woods' 2003 driving average of 299.3 yards - which would have won the PGA Tour driving championship by more than 10 yards in his rookie season of 1996 - doesn't even make the PGA's top 10 this week and would place 35th in the Nationwide Tour standings.

``There are kids out there that are going to blow my marks out of the water,'' Woods said three years ago at Thousand Oaks' Sherwood Country Club.

He was talking about further down the road, but the long hitters of the Nationwide Tour - the top minor-league tour in this country and probably the second-best tour in the world - seem to be accelerating the improvement Woods predicted was coming.

Victor Schwamkrug, the Nationwide Tour driving leader who will be playing this week in the Mark Christopher Charity Classic at Empire Lakes, is averaging 337.6 yards off the tee and is one of 32 players averaging at least 300 yards.

By way of comparison, PGA Tour leader Hank Kuehne bests golf's top professional tour with an average of 319.5 yards entering this week's Texas Open. That's almost 5 yards better than eight-time defending champion John Daly, who has won 11 of the past 12 tour driving titles.

Texas native Schwamkrug, a 26-year-old University of Houston graduate who was a three-time all-conference selection for the Cougars, will be one of eight Nationwide Tour top-10 drivers competing at Empire Lakes. He won the tour driving title last year with a 328.5-yard average.

In 1999, his first year on the Nationwide Tour - called the Hogan, Nike and Buy.com tours under previous sponsorships - Schwamkrug had a 295.5 average. It jumped to 301.6 in 2000 and 312.0 in 2001 before the 328.5 last year and this year's 337.6.

Schwamkrug, a finalist in the 2001 Re/Max World Long Driving Championship, once hit a ball that carried 340 yards on the fly to reach a par-4 green at Houston's BraeBurn Country Club. But even with that kind of length and driving consistency, he ranks only 15th on the Nationwide Tour's list for longest drive this season.

Brett Wetterich holds that distinction with a blast of 418 yards, and four others have drives in excess of 400.

Bubba Watson, the No. 2 Nationwide Tour driver whose 317.5 average would be pressing for top honors on the PGA Tour, also will be at Empire Lakes, as will top-10 drivers Wetterich (315.7), Ryan Palmer (311.5), Jimmy Walker (310.5), Stiles Mitchell (309.4), Roger Tambellini (309.2) and Daniel Chopra (307.8).

Competition runs today through Sunday on the Arnold Palmer-designed course, where former Hart High of Newhall and Pepperdine golfer Jason Gore was bidding for a third successive victory last year.

Gore failed in that bid, but wins in his two previous 2002 starts secured a top-15 finish in earnings and a PGA Tour card for this season.

Andy Miller, son of Johnny Miller, won the 2002 Empire Lakes event, then called the State Farm Open, shooting 5-under-par 66 in his closing round and surviving a playoff with Dave Stockton Jr., John Restino and Doug Garwood.

--Names in the game: Agoura High coach Gary Gray is trying to find a way around shoulder problems this season. Senior Maria Gamboa, the returning Marmonte League individual champion, missed most of the summer recovering from an injury. Amanda Goodman, fourth in league last season as one of the area's top freshmen, came up with an injury last week. ...

Stephanie O'Neill, a freshman at Quartz Hill High, launched her prep career by shooting even par in a nine-hole match against Saugus. Quartz Hill coach Stu Manthey called O'Neill, who has been successful in junior events before high school, one of the best freshmen he has seen.

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ON THE GREEN

- Dave Shelburne