SORENSTAM IN MIDST OF HISTORIC RUN VICTORY IN L.A. WOULD BE LPGA RECORD 4TH IN ROW.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

The LPGA Tour makes its annual Los Angeles stop this week, but at its third course in as many years.

This time it's Wilshire Country Club, where rising star Annika Sorenstam leads a field of 144 into the inaugural Office Depot hosted by Amy Alcott.

The $800,000 tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday, replaces the discontinued Los Angeles Women's Championship, played the past two years at Glendale's Oakmont Country Club, then Wood Ranch in Simi Valley.

The Wilshire event also includes two defending champions. Laura Davies won the L.A. tour stop in February last year at Wood Ranch, and Grace Park won last June at the South Carolina-based Kathy Ireland Greens.com LPGA Classic, which changed names, dates and sites this year to become the latest L.A. stop on the women's tour.

Davies, Park and the rest of a strong field might have all they can handle in trying to hold off Sorenstam, who is quietly rivaling Tiger Woods for the distinction of hottest professional golfer on the planet.

Sorenstam, No. 1 in season earnings, comes to Wilshire having won three consecutive LPGA events, one shy of an LPGA record shared by Hall of Famers Mickey Wright and Kathy Whitworth. Sorenstam's most-recent victory was also her third LPGA major - the Nabisco Championship - that she won two weeks ago at Rancho Mirage.

The week before that, in the Standard Register Ping at Phoenix, the eighth-year LPGA performer from Sweden set LPGA records for 72 holes (27 under par) and 18 holes, where she shot a 59 that equaled the lowest round for any professional tour.

``I think it's amazing what she's done in the last couple of months,'' Park said. ``It is every player's goal to have success like Annika.''

Park was fairly amazing herself as a tour rookie last year, turning in four top-10 finishes - including a sixth at the U.S. Women's Open - and placing second behind Dorothy Delasin in voting for rookie of the year. She enters the Office Depot ranked No. 7 in season earnings.

Delasin will be another of the top entries at Wilshire, an old-style course that has attracted eight of the top 10 LPGA players, including No. 3 Se Ri Pak. Pak dueled Sorenstam to the wire at Phoenix and finished 25- under par to come within a stroke of the old 72-hole record.

Other top-10 entries are Dottie Pepper, Sophie Gustafson, Janice Moodie, Laura Diaz and Akiko Fukushima.

The tournament also will be a homecoming for Emilee Klein, the former Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks star who went on to win the 1988 state women's amateur title, 1994 NCAA championship and 1996 Women's British Open, which this year replaced the discontinued du Maurier Classic as one of the four LPGA majors.

Davies, a British citizen and 14-year LPGA veteran who has long been one of the longest hitters in women's professional golf, enters Wilshire with 19 LPGA victories and 60 professional wins worldwide. She also arrives with a balky driver.

``Everything else is fine, but if I can't hit my driver, some of my advantage is gone,'' she said. '`It concerns me right now, but I'm sure I will get things worked out.''

She's looking forward to playing at Wilshire, which has never before hosted an LPGA event, and to playing in Los Angeles again, even while not sure she is defending a championship.

``As I understand it, this is a completely new golf tournament,'' Davies said. ``I'm just glad we are returning to Los Angeles. ... The fans were great when I won last year.''

OFFICE DEPOT HOSTED BY AMY ALCOTT

Course: Wilshire Country Club, 6,531 yards, par 71

TV: Thursday-Friday - 2:30-4 p.m., ESPN2; Saturday - 11 a.m.-2 p.m., ESPN

Purse: $800,000

Tickets: [phone], ext. 26255

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OFFICE DEPOT HOSTED BY AMY ALCOTT (see text)