SHARK'S NOT HERE, BUT HIS DISCIPLES ARE.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

Greg Norman hasn't been affiliated with the PGA Tour stop in L.A. for nearly as long as Glen Campbell. In 1985, two years after the singer last lent his name to the L.A. Open, Norman shot rounds of 72-73 at Riviera Country Club and missed the cut. After that, Shark sightings dried up like the creek that once ran through part of the Pacific Palisades course.

The Australian golfing great hasn't appeared in the event since. Nevertheless, the 17-year veteran is casting a long shadow on this year's Nissan Open. Heading into today's final round four Australians sit within three shots of the lead, all of them there for the grace and greatness of Greg.

Norman's swashbuckling style, so reminiscent of Arnold Palmer's in his prime, has kindled interest in the game in his homeland, same as Palmer's did in his during his heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.

Australia produced prominent players - Peter Thomson, Bruce Devlin, Bruce Crampton and Wayne Grady, to name a few - but no transcendent personalities until Norman stormed onto the PGA Tour and won two events and finished second in the U.S. Open in his second full season, in 1984.

By the force of his magnetism, Norman pulled would-be cricket players such as Craig Spence and Australian Rules football players such as Stuart Appleby and Bradley Hughes into golf.

``If it wasn't for Greg Norman, golf wouldn't be what it is in Australia,'' said Melbourne native Robert Allenby. ``That's true as it gets.''

Allenby, 27, pulled to within two shots of third-round leader David Sutherland on the strength of a 4-under-par 67. He scorched the back nine - his first nine - in a 4-under 32 and hung on.

He is tied for eighth at 7-under-par with 11 others, among them Hughes and Spence. Another Aussie, Greg Chalmers, who was tied for the second-round lead, is three behind Sutherland after shooting a 74.

Hughes, 33, is Australia's answer to Deion Sanders. He signed with the Melbourne Football Club but victories in the Australian Masters in 1993 and 1998 spurred him to aim for greens and forget the goalposts.

Spence may seem as small as a sixpence, but his swing is pure gold.

The 25-year-old, who's as thin as his broomstick putter and more boyish- looking than any standard-bearer we've seen this week, won the Australian Masters last year and has one top-five finish in 11 career PGA Tour starts.

Spence had never seen Riviera until he played a practice round with Hughes last week. But he immediately felt at home amid the kikuyu grass and poa annua and bent-grass greens.

Indeed, Riviera could be Australian for golf, it's so much like the courses Down Under.

All eyes naturally are going to be on Tiger Woods, who is lurking three strokes off the lead. But it would be unwise to count out the Australians, who are as home as koala bears amid all the eucalyptus trees.

``The design of the golf course and the shape of the greens are the same as the courses we play back home,'' Spence said after his 1-under-par 70.

``There's no water, no tricks to the course,'' Hughes elaborated. ``If you hit goods shots, you can get rewarded.''

There is one marked difference between Riviera and the course Hughes played out of in Australia. It costs $85,000 to join Riviera and the monthly dues are $500. Hughes paid only $200 for playing privileges for the calendar year back home.

``Golf is still quite cheap in Australia,'' Hughes said. ``It's more accessible to people than it is here in the States.''

The greens fees are lower. That's the good news. The bad news is so are the purses on the Australasian Tour, creating a scenario whereby the best Australian golfers eventually grow too big for their homeland. It doesn't help that the Australasian Tour starts in December, which is what passes for an offseason for most of the world's top golfers, and runs through February.

The end result is Australia is exporting more golfers to the U.S. than koalas, which has Australian golfing officials none too pleased. To a man the Aussies playing here said they feel pressure to prop up their home tour even as they're pressing to make a place for themselves among the world's best golfers on the PGA Tour.

``I'd have to win here and be secure for a few years before I'd feel like I could (divide his time between the tours, as Norman does),'' said Hughes, who twice has finished as high as second on the PGA Tour. ``Until then, it's not worth jeopardizing my standing here just to try to please everyone back home.''

Spence can see both sides now. ``It's such a good argument in both directions,'' he said. ``We need to compete with the best players to continue to succeed and the best players are on the PGA Tour. But our tour will go backwards if the good players don't (grace) it.''

Aussie rules obviously can get quite complicated.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Craig Spence won the Australian Masters last year and is one of a wave of Greg Norman-inspired golfers on the PGA Tour from Down Under.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

(2) Australian Greg Chalmers was tied for the second-round lead and is three shots back entering the final round.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press