Different Paths to the Same Destination : Golf: Brandie Burton and Michelle Estill are shooting for LPGA rookie-of-the-year honors.

This time last year, Brandie Burton was an 18-year-old freshman at Arizona State, and Michelle Estill was a 27-year-old ASU assistant golf coach.

This weekend, they are settling the issue of which one will be the LPGA rookie of the year.

Burton, a long driver whose biggest problem on the tour is finding a company that will rent a car to a 19-year-old, has made a straight shot for the upper levels of the game. After one season at ASU, she was ranked the No. 1 women’s college golfer in the nation, and she turned professional.

“All I wanted to do was be on the golf course,” said Burton, who is from Rialto. “I felt I was ready for the next step.”

She quickly proved it, shooting a 67 in her first round as a pro and taking home $16,125 with a sixth-place tie in her first tournament, the Women’s Kemper Open in Hawaii in March. She has six top-10 finishes in 22 tournaments, has finished in the top 20 nine times and has missed only three cuts.

Estill, who is from Scottsdale, Ariz., is a different case. She started playing golf at 7, then took 14 or 15 years off before walking on at Arizona State in 1985 after working three years for a mortgage company. She joined the tour at 28 this season after three years as an assistant coach at ASU that included one season playing in Europe.

Estill didn’t come out of the blocks the way Burton did. But with her $60,000 victory in the Cellular One-Ping LPGA tournament Sept. 8 in Portland, Ore., Estill suddenly overtook Burton on the earnings list that decides the rookie-of-the-year award.

Burton has since re-claimed the lead, but at $151,776, she is ahead by only $16,402. Since Estill is playing her final tournament of the season, the MBS LPGA at Los Coyotes Country Club this week is settling it.

After shooting 70s in the second round Friday, Burton and Estill are deadlocked at three under par, five strokes behind leader Lisa Walters.

“You don’t pay attention to (the rookie standings), you have to play shot by shot,” Burton said. “We’ve talked about it. We’ve both had great years, and if one of us doesn’t get it, that’s OK. This is just the beginning for us.”

It has been quite a beginning, especially for Burton.

“She’s the next ‘best golfer’ to come along,” Estill said. “She’s a natural. Last year, I figured if Brandie made it into the rookie race, she’d win it.”

Burton’s long-driving ability makes her stand out in a crowd.

“Brandie hits the ball consistently 240 to 280 off the tee,” Estill said. The average LPGA drive is around 230 yards. “Every now and then, someone will bust one, but she does it consistently.”

Hitting the ball like that helps, but there’s more to it.

“She has a lot of experience, a lot of composure,” said Estill, who admits she sometimes finds herself in situations she’s never met in her comparatively brief career. “Brandie doesn’t act like she’s a rookie.”

Walking up the par-5, 474-yard 18th hole Friday, Burton was four under in the tournament. She took a look at where the ball was on the fairway, another look at the water hazard in front of the green, and decided not to lay up.

“That was more or less me going for it,” Burton said. “I’m a pretty aggressive person.”

It didn’t work this time. She found herself on a ridge left of the water and finished with a bogey. It didn’t work on No. 13, either. But keep watching, and it will.

Estill is as sure about that as anyone.

“People look at her and say she doesn’t act her age, but she’s a kid inside,” she said. “In college, we would go to football games, and she’s just a kid. On the golf course, she might as well be 30. She’s serious. She knows what she wants. A lot of kids don’t know that. She also knows how to get it. It’s ingrown in her. That’s an advantage. I don’t see how it couldn’t be.”