WOMEN ON COURSE : MEN NOT ONLY ONES GOLFING, MAKING DEALS.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer

An increasing number of women these days are swinging business deals on the golf course along with their irons and drivers.

Initially it can be a foreign environment, what with all the convivial patter about birdies, bogeys, slices, hooks, graphite and titanium.

So about 100 women from Los Angeles and Ventura counties delved into these matters Monday and received some professional instruction on how to play the game during a Ladies Professional Golf Association clinic at Calabasas Country Club.

For former high school player Susan Weisberg, an operations manager at Wyle Electronics Marketing Group in Calabasas, the clinic was a chance to fine-tune her skills and pick up some knowledge that could prove handy during a future business outing.

``I just couldn't pass up the LPGA lessons,'' said Weisberg, an Encino resident who plays once a week.

Weisberg helps set up an annual tournament for some of her company's vendors and thinks that knowing about the game of golf and how to play it helps her business.

``I'm just very well received (by male golfers). It's easier to be on their level and it's one of the things that's very useful in business,'' Weisberg said.

LPGA touring pro Janet Andersen, 19 women teaching pros from courses as far away as Pebble Beach Golf Links and former touring pro Mary Bryan, now a television golf analyst, provided the instruction.

The clinic, the first of 14 to be held across the country this year, was sponsored by The Gillette Co. and Target Stores. Each participant, or the individual's company, paid $225 to attend the daylong event. The morning session was devoted to lessons on driving, chipping and putting, with rules on golfing etiquette sprinkled throughout. The women played nine holes after lunch.

In keeping with golf's charitable tradition, Gillette and Target also are donating $50,000 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation as part of the clinics.

Bryan noted the number of women playing golf today has exploded compared with when she took up the game in the 1960s. About 50 percent of all new junior golfers are women and 236 colleges now have women's golf programs - there were 10 two decades ago. And women now account for about 40 percent of all new players taking up the game.

``The most interesting part is that women are becoming cognizant of the fact that business is being done on the golf course,'' Bryan said. ``And 65 percent of the money spent in pro shops is being spent by women.''

She frequently plays in pro-am events across the country and says it is not unusual now for women to show up with some of their clients in tow.

Andersen, who does about five clinics a year, said businesswomen golfers are more common every year.

``Women have found out that it's OK to play golf, it's fun to play golf and it's a great way to do business,'' she said.

Count Laurie McCormick, a stockbroker at Edward Jones & Co.'s Encino office, in this group. She, too, tries to play once a week in addition to the outings that are tied to her business.

She started playing golf seven years ago because her husband did. McCormick had a specific target in mind Monday: improving her short game.

And she doesn't mind being the only woman in a group of men.

``I like it,'' McCormick said. ``I can keep up with them. And sometimes women are better putters.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Susan Weisberg of Encino, left, gets tips from golf pro Linda Christiansen.

(2) Golf pro Linda Christiansen works with a group of women Monday at the Calabasas Country Club.

Phil McCarten/Daily News