STEVE PATE'S BIRDIES ARE ALL IN A ROW.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

One, two, three - how many consecutive birdies would it be?

Four, five - Steve Pate's record bid was alive.

Six, seven - for one shimmering stretch it was almost heaven.

Augusta National Golf Club bowed to Pate on Saturday and the next thing he knew he was royalty, being feted by a gargantuan gallery as though he were Jack Nicklaus down the stretch in 1986 or Tiger Woods bringing history home in 1997.

The Agoura Hills resident bled the course for seven consecutive birdies to break the tournament record shared by three players and vault into contention for his first major championship. His was the red ribbon in which the third round of the 63rd Masters came wrapped.

The fun-loving Pate has tied one on before, he said, but never like this. ``This is very special,'' he said after carding a 7-under-par 65, ``because it's someplace where it means something,''

From the seventh hole through the 13th, Pate went along picking up birdies on the course as nonchalantly as workers on the other side of the ropes did cigarette butts and beer cups.

The 50-foot birdie putt with the five-foot break at No. 10, chased by a 30-footer at No. 11? To hear Pate talk, it was easier done than said. The same thing goes for the shots that set up the 7-foot uphill putt on No. 7, the 20-footer at No. 8, the 18-inch tap-in at No. 9, the 12-incher at No. 12 and the 7-footer at No. 13.

``I have no explanation for what happened,'' Pate said, drawing laughter from the roomful of reporters he was addressing after moving into a tie for third with Davis Love III at 5-under 211, two strokes behind Jose Maria Olazabal.

``It was probably the easiest stretch of holes I've played all week. For an hour-and-a-half, everything I did was right.''

Who knew flukes could elicit laughter and not just pain? Certainly not Pate, 37, who has had more accidents, if you will, than a puppy not yet housebroken.

In 1996 the former UCLA standout broke both wrists, the right one when he rear-ended a truck while traveling 75 miles per hour and the left one when he tripped on a dock while vacationing at Lake Powell.

Before that, Pate suffered a hip injury when the car he was riding in was broadsided en route to a banquet during the 1991 Ryder Cup. Which is not to be confused with the time he was broadsided by a deer in his driveway while astride his bike.

``I've done a lot of amazing things,'' Pate said, poking fun at himself. ``Some good, some bad.''

There was little that was ugly about Pate's first two rounds here, save his double-bogey, bogey finish during Friday's second round. He had been striking the ball well all week so he wasn't nearly as surprised as all the scoreboard watchers when his birdie barrage began on the par-4 seventh (he had foreshadowed his round with a birdie at No. 3).

``I played real solid the first two days,'' Pate said. ``So it's not like this came out of nowhere.''

Pate could not say the same for his gallery. It swelled with each stroke he shaved off par, growing so humongous that Pate could have been forgiven for muttering, ``I am Tiger Woods.''

``There were a lot of people in the middle of the round that started appearing out of nowhere,'' Pate said. ``They started appearing out of trees like Bigfoot.''

They also started rising at every green and tee to applaud Pate. It was a bit overwhelming, for him to look around and know the cheers were for him, the same guy who three years ago had a hard time getting motivated to get up off his couch.

``It was great,'' Pate said. ``You appreciate it. But it can be a distraction so you've got to try to shut it out.''

He hadn't given the record for consecutive birdies any thought until he floated to the 14th tee on yet another wave of adoration. Then, Pate said, ``it popped into my head that I might get my name in the record book, which might be nice.''

Of course, by that time it was a fait accompli. His playing partner, Lee Westwood, who had the nicest 68 that nobody noticed, seemed to seize the significance of the moment before Pate. After Pate's birdie putt on 13 died in the hole, Westwood bowed and fanned Pate as if to say, ``I am not worthy.''

Or maybe he was just trying to cool Pate off.

``After 13 I figured he'd caught fire, yeah,'' Westwood said.

It was all so different from 1996, when nothing could light a fire under Pate. He had lost much of his enthusiasm for golf even before injuries gave him a handy excuse to leave it.

In 1995 he had no top-10 finishes in 32 events and earned less than $100,000 for the first time since his rookie year of 1985. ``My attitude wasn't good,'' Pate said.

So when he got injured he was perfectly content to sit around and do nothing for most of 1996. He played in three PGA Tour events. The rest of the time, ``I got fat, really,'' Pate said. ``I laid on the couch and ate, basically.''

His wife Sheri finally got tired of having a human dust ball instead of a husband. She told him to go do something. He got back into golf because, as he explained, ``I wanted to stay married.''

That's his punchline. In plain talk, ``I realized that playing poorly,'' Pate said, ``is better than not playing at all.''

And playing like he did Saturday? Well, nothing beats that. But check back with Pate tonight.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

PHOTO (Color) Steve Pate, from Agoura Hills, broke a Masters' record with seven consecutive birdies.

Ron Cockerille/Associated Press

BOX: LEADERBOARD