NISSAN OPEN CLOSER LOOK: FLOOD FROM DOWN UNDER MORE TALENTED AUSTRALIAN GOLFERS LOOK TO CHALLENGE TOP RANKS OF PGA TOUR.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

The big wave in professional golf is Tiger Woods.

The growing wave is Australian golfers.

Nearly a dozen of them are participating on this year's PGA Tour, and more are on the way, if the play of young Aussies Aaron Baddeley and Adam Scott is any indication.

Scott, 20, won his first professional title this month, and Baddeley, 19, has two Australian Open titles to go with a European Tour victory.

``We're getting more educated down home,'' said Paul Gow, the 30-year- old Sydney native who broke the Australasian Tour record by shooting 60 in the first round of last month's Canon Challenge in Sydney.

Gow, who is playing in this week's Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club, thinks the golf of his countrymen is on the rise as much because of a strong grass-roots program as the high profile enjoyed by Aussie international stars such as Greg Norman, Karrie Webb and Steve Elkington.

Webb, 26, called the Tiger Woods of the LPGA after 19 wins in five years, is now providing the same impetus for Australian girls that the 46-year-old Norman (1995 PGA Tour Player of the Year) and the 38-year-old Elkington (winner of the '95 PGA Championship at Riviera) have long been giving to Australian boys dreaming of playing on the PGA Tour.

That and an Australian junior system that provides early instruction and affordable golf are maximizing opportunities in a country where weather conditions are conducive to playing the game year-round.

``There are a lot of good golf coaches down home that are developing the guys like Baddeley and Scott, and a lot earlier than they used to,'' Gow said. ``And guys like Norman and Elkington have opened up the doors to a lot of the players who believe they can play over here with all the good American players. You're going to see probably 30 Australians within the next couple of years playing on this tour.''

Countryman Stuart Appleby, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, agrees that the Australian junior program is the source of Aussie skills now being seen on professional tours and says instruction for juniors is not limited to the golf swing.

``We're learning about diet, about physical health, about training and the whole thing,'' Appleby said. ``Not just about playing golf and seeing if the young boy or girl becomes better, but we're doing conducive stuff to make the players better.

``It's a great junior program, with great facilities for the kids starting really from the get-go, from 5 years of age onwards. And once they get into that age where they're teens and they may be becoming good players but can sort of get lost in going to college or getting a job and not playing, they have good stuff to stay in the game - good courses and very affordable.''

That early support and Australia's long-established love of sports has contributed to Aussies becoming nearly as numerous as Texans on the PGA Tour.

``It's a sporting country,'' Gow said. ``They love their cricket, their rugby league and Aussie rules football and they watch anything outdoors, basically.''

New Zealander Frank Nobilo, who has been familiar with Australian golf throughout his 22-year professional career and longer, thinks Australians' love of sport increases the likelihood of their youth achieving professional success.

``It's a bit like America with an abundance of top sports and obviously top sportsmen,'' Nobilo said. ``Success breeds success. They play so many team sports professionally, so I think they know how to make the adjustment from amateur to pro.

``You put the two together - a 16-year-old kid with talent, given all the access like they do over here, and you're going to get world-class players. They've had world-class players for three or four decades, from Peter Thomson to Kel Nagle to Norman Von Nida to the Greg Normans and David Grahams, so they've always had success and it's not like they're doing anything different. Put it all together and their young players are not scared of emulating meteorites.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Aaron Baddeley, 19, is part of a growing wave of Australian pros developed by junior programs Down Under.

John Raoux/Associated Press

(2) Australia's Adam Scott, like countryman Aaron Baddeley, has already won as a professional.

Associated Press