SHE'S PASSING ALL HER TESTS.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Saugus High has many impressive golfers on a team that was 36-0 last season and returns all but one player. But the most remarkable is Jill Shatkus, who never touched a golf club before July of last year.

Shatkus played herself onto the starting team with two months of practice, qualified this summer for the Southern California PGA Junior Tour's Tournament of Champions and carries a handicap index of 10.6 into her second season of high school golf - all while coping with diabetes.

``It made me more mature,'' said Shatkus, who first was diagnosed with the disease at age 11, takes insulin injections three or four times daily and tests her blood sugar at least six to seven times a day.

``The fact that I have so much more responsibility helps make me more focused than any of the other girls,'' she said. ``I have to be focused.''

When she plays golf, Shatkus must calculate her calorie intake and insulin dose and also estimate the level of her physical exertion, based on weather, terrain, playing time and length of the course. When her parents ask her about her numbers after a match, they want to know about blood-sugar levels as well as strokes over par.

``A perfect day for Jill,'' said her father, John, ``would be a golf score of 70 and blood-sugar numbers in the 90s.''

Although her best 72-hole score is 82, she almost got into the 70s in her biggest junior tournament of the summer. She was 2 over par through 12 holes at the SCPGA Junior Tournament of Champions at difficult PGA of Southern California GC last month before the reality of what she was accomplishing took its toll.

``She's really a special kid,'' said longtime Santa Clarita Valley golf instructor Lee Breckenridge, who has been instructing Shatkus once a week since she took up this game about 15 months ago.

``I'm sure the diabetes was a factor in her success,'' Breckenridge said. But he also credits the drive of his quick-study student, who wants to follow fellow diabetics Scott Verplank of the PGA and Michelle McGann of the LPGA into the highest ranks of professional golf.

``She's fallen in love with the game and she's been off the charts in her improvement. It's mainly work ethic - she puts in a ton of work.''

Shatkus has taken the same kind of focus she applies to monitoring her blood-sugar level to working on her driving, iron play, chipping, putting and course management. She practices every day and probably gets a significant putting advantage from her family's membership at Crystalaire Country Club, where the greens are regarded as being among the area's fastest.

It's sort of in keeping with the speed in which Shatkus has improved since her father asked her last summer if she wanted to play golf and she discovered a new love.

--Breakthrough victory: David Lipsky of La Canada shot 69-71-140 last weekend in Rancho Mirage to win the first American Junior Golf Association tournament he entered, outlasting a field of 85 in the AJGA Ashworth Postseason Junior at Weston Mission Hills Resort's Gary Player Course.

The victory, in an event that was part of the 10-tournament national series designed to provide competition for boys who have not played in AJGA events, earned 15-year-old Lipsky exemption into three AJGA Open events during the 2004 season.

``I think I can compete,'' he said of his opportunity to play on the nation's top junior tour. ``There are a lot of good players out there. I feel like I can play like I did this weekend all throughout next year. I'm hitting the ball well and putting well.''

--Mountain man: Ed Galvan, a teaching pro at De Bell GC in Burbank, will compete in the fifth U.X. Open Extreme Golf Tour Championship on Sunday at Snowmass Mountain in Aspen, Colo.

Galvan, 44, who has competed on the Asian, South Pacific and Australian professional golf tours, earned his berth in the 10-man U.X. Open final by shooting 2-under 33 in a qualifier at Mammoth Mountain.

U.X. Open competition, held in mountainous terrain at elevations of 9,000 to 12,000 feet, tests golfers with holes up to 800 yards but with no putting - a hole is concluded by pitching a ball into a painted circle roughly 30 feet in diameter. Each golfer is limited to four clubs.

--Names in the game: Camarillo High senior Colin Wilcox, the Daily News Co-Player of the Year two years ago, shot 4-under 209 to win the 54-hole Ventura County championship, finishing with a 68 at BuenaVentura GC. ... Edward Johnson and Mark Mayer of Golf Extra-Santa Clarita led area entries in the SCGA Affiliate Team Championship at Prim Valley GC, placing sixth with a net 60-71-131 on the par-71, 6,444-yard Lakes course. Gordon Harder and Steven Roth of Oil Masters GC won the event at 61-62-123.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

MICHELLE WIE

Box:

ON THE GREEN

- Dave Shelburne