WHERE THERE'S WILL, THERE'S A WAY.

Byline: JILL PAINTER

GOLF

Will Leivenberg is hanging out at the Sepulveda Golf Complex chatting about all of the things he has to do this week.

It's best to sit down.

The Cleveland of Reseda senior is co-captain of the undefeated golf team (8-0 West Valley League) and will play in a match against Monroe today. He's involved in student government and since it's Spirit Week, he's been devising costumes for each day. This particular day was Pajamas Day and Leivenberg wore pants adorned with golfers and borrowed his mom's robe, complete with coffee-mug pattern. He has a speech and games to prepare for lunchtime Friday, which is Greek Day. He's in Cleveland's prestigious Knights and Ladies Council, and helps with Project Chicken Soup, a charity benefiting AIDS patients.

He was a bit anxious about his job as the sports editor of the school newspaper, "Le Sabre." He had a section to finish in a few hours but one game was canceled and another moved, so he needed to get word to his reporter.

He's in theatre and takes honors courses, too. And when he has a spare moment, he pinches himself to make sure he really was accepted to Cal and that it wasn't just a dream.

Leivenberg is making up for lost time. As a child, Leivenberg had a stuttering problem so severe he'd stumble over his own name.

Classmates teased him, which still is troublesome. Just before it was Leivenberg's turn to read in class, he'd find safety in the bathroom. He had a learning disability and sometimes suffered from depression as a result.

Life was not easy, but overcoming those obstacles made Leivenberg the vivacious, confident, dare-to-be different kid who is making a difference.

"The fact is, I had the worst stuttering problem," said Leivenberg, 17. "It kept me from talking to girls. It kept me from being in musical theatre. It kept me from being in student government. I needed special attention, and I really just found it through my parents."

Listening to Leivenberg, it's tough to believe he was once a shy, distracted child, since he never stops talking. His older brother, Jason, who attends Cal, did everything early, so his parents, Lori Berger and Richard Leivenberg, were justifiably concerned.

They took him to speech therapists and language therapists and tutors of all kinds.

"As any young boy, you don't want to be different, but he knew he was different," said Berger, acelebrity journalist who works for the Hearst Corporation. "As parents, we always encouraged our children to celebrate their differences. That's fine and dandy when you're in high school, but in middle school, you just want to be like everyone else."

When Leivenberg was in seventh grade, he welcomed a teacher who had a sign in his room that read: "Anybody can sing." Leivenberg helped shed his stutter through theatre, and won a main role as Oliver Warbucks in the school play "Annie."

Leivenberg and his good friend and teammate David Dwyer are competitive when it comes to golf, but they're very different. Leivenberg is 6-foot-3 and a lefty. Dwyer is 5-6. They both have a scoring average of 2-over par.

"I don't think I'd be the player I am today without being pushed by Will," Dwyer said.

Cleveland golf coach Mike Farr didn't even know Leivenberg had faced such challenges until Leivenberg's father told him a few weeks ago.

When Leivenberg -- who has made regionals the past two years -- started playing for Cleveland, he didn't feel some of the experienced players took golf seriously. He was a better golfer and once confidently strolled up to the first tee box and told them he had honors. He'll try out to become a walk-on golfer at Cal soon.

Leivenberg, who carries a notebook everywhere to jot ideas down, took three months to write his 600-word college entrance essay application on beating his stuttering problem.

The end could not have been more fitting as Leivenberg wrote: "Language, which had once been my enemy, was now my source of power."

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Tiger gets tips for Oakmont

Tiger Woods might be the best golfer on the planet, but that doesn't mean he's above taking golf tips.

He did that in playing a round of golf with Bob Ford, the head pro at Oakmont (Penn.) Country Club, site of the U.S. Open. Woods played 36 holes at Oakmont with friend Hank Haney on Sunday, and then had a corporate outing Monday. He has the skinny on the course, where Ernie Els won the 1994 U.S. Open.

Woods is not participating in this week's EDS Byron Nelson Championship but is preparing for the U.S. Open on June 14-17.

"It's a great test but has a lot of blind tee and second shots," Woods wrote in his newsletter. "Overall, I'd say it's a lot harder than Augusta National. It's an old-style course. I kept trying to figure out where the USGA was going to put the pin placements for the U.S. Open in June and I'm still not sure."

Harder than Augusta? Yikes!

Woods was eager to play the 288-yard, par-3 eighth hole and reached the green with a 3-wood.

"Hey, I refuse to hit driver on any par-3!" Woods said.

Zach Johnson won the Masters at 1-over par and Woods, who was in contention on Sunday, finished two shots back. Woods has played in just five PGA Tour events this season -- he won two -- but still is second in FedEx Cup points.

Woods spent a great deal of his newsletter chronicling his Masters performance.

"(It) was definitely one of the most draining weeks I've ever had in a major, because the conditions were so difficult," Woods wrote. "Normally, that's not the case. That was one hell of a test. ...

"People have asked if I felt OK that week because I looked tired and was always sniffling. My allergies were pretty bad because of all of the pollen blowing out of the trees, and I took the Claritin pretty good. But that's not why I lost. Zach Johnson played a wonderful final round and deserved to win."

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) Cleveland High's Will Leivenberg overcame a stuttering problem and became an involved student.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(2) no caption (Tiger Woods)

Box:

(1) THIS WEEK

(2) Etc.