Swinging for the Fairways : Once junior golf lagged behind other youth sports, but with the emergence of Tiger Woods, the game’s popularity has exploded.

“I like to putt,” says Faith De Guzman, 8, as she struggles to explain why she likes golf.

Asked if she knows who Tiger Woods is, she is more certain: “He’s this guy who loves Nike.”

Although Woods may not have directly inspired all of instructor Michael Brown’s student golfers to take up the game, the 21-year-old, six-time Professional Golf Assn. champ has made liking the sport a lot easier.

“Miguel’s friends would tease, ‘You’re going golfing?’ ” said Leilani De Guzman, mother of Faith and 10-year-old Miguel. “But after Tiger Woods, hey, everybody knows golf.”

The De Guzman children are typical of kids flocking to Southland junior golf programs, many of which are run by the city, the Ladies Professional Golf Assn. or Brown, who has been instrumental in developing junior golf locally. The programs are putting children, with a focus on urban children, on public courses, regardless of ability to play--or the ability to pay.

“Golf is the hottest ticket in town,” said Brown, golf pro at Calabasas Golf Center.

Brown started teaching eight kids in the Valley three years ago and now has 140 young duffers, including the De Guzmans, in his San Fernando Valley Junior Golf program. On Saturday, his R.R. Gable Jr.-Adult Golf Tournament is expected to draw about 30 kids and their parents to Mission Hills Little League Golf Course in North Hills. Brown organizes about a dozen such tournaments a year. (The next one, open to kids who pass a rules test and have a 3.0 grade point average, is scheduled for Nov. 11 at Woodley Lakes Golf Course in Encino.)

With golf’s increased popularity, the shortage of instructors and golf courses to accommodate the young golfers is more evident than ever.

“It’s a hard thing for children to get time on a course and good instruction,” said Sarah Boulton, whose son, Max, is under Brown’s tutelage. “I’m a single parent, and this kind of affordable program is hard to find.”

Especially since Woods. The notoriety that came to the sport because of Woods is quite an about-face for a game that barely a year ago seemed stuck in a sand-trap compared to soccer, baseball and basketball. But how excited could kids get over a game that’s played in street clothes and whose fans are so sedate you can hear a ball drop? Well, as it turns out, pretty excited.

“Tiger Woods made golf cool,” said John Morrison, director of the LPGA Junior Golf Program, based at Hollywood Park. “This time last year I didn’t have a waiting list. We have 300 on a waiting list now.”

Before Woods started dominating the pro courses and getting kids hooked, golf was thought to be more for the well-to-do or at least the well-connected--hardly a sport just any kid could play. But junior golf aims to sink that notion.

The LPGA junior program was started in South-Central Los Angeles in 1989 as a risk-prevention program for kids who might not otherwise ever step foot on a golf course. Now, the program has 700 members playing on 16 L.A. and Orange County public courses.

Brown single-handedly brought junior golf to urban San Fernando Valley youth, Morrison added, teaching the rules and etiquette as an instructor for the LPGA and through his own youth program. Instruction costs $88 for six weeks, which includes range balls and a round of golf each week. Brown supplies equipment (often donated by manufacturers), shirts (provided by sponsors) and even transportation (usually provided by him).

Brown’s contribution has been crucial, said Morrison, because most youth programs, including the LPGA’s, don’t have the staffing to accommodate all the kids who want to play. Brown is attempting to raise funds by filing for nonprofit status to encourage more corporate support. He’s also fighting an ongoing battle just to give kids a place to play.

“A lot of [golf courses] don’t want kids because they think they’ll destroy the course,” Brown said.

Adam Verdugo, 13, has firsthand experience with getting paired with adults who underestimate him.

“They give you a hard time, they say things like, ‘What are they doing here?,’ ” he said. “Then you see the frustration when they see we’re better than they are.”

Adults usually don’t expect kids to know the game, when in fact, both Brown and Morrison agree, the kids probably know the rules better than most adults.

Brown, the LPGA and the city recreation and parks programs all provide their young golfers with certificates of completion that they can present at the golf courses stating that they know the rules and proper etiquette.

But one likely solution is forthcoming through the city Recreation and Parks Department. Environmental studies are now underway to reopen the Coolidge facility--shuttered since 1981--at Griffith Park in summer 1998. The venue would be open to all kids involved in junior golf programs.

“Coolidge would be a fantastic resource, and an opportunity for kids to have a home course,” said Morrison, who added that the LPGA is willing to work in partnership with the city to make that youth facility happen.

Ken Novak, program manager of the L.A. Recreation and Parks Department, agrees the need is there. “Our participation this summer was up,” he said. “Whether it was the Tiger Woods phenomenon or that the years with this program are finally paying off, who knows?”

Either way, Novak said, he hopes the trend continues. “The nature of golf is something we all can learn, it builds character, cooperation and understanding.”

“If we could get the Coolidge facility,” added Brown, “it would be a tremendous amount of help in regards to junior golf. . . . I have all these kids, and I can’t tell them no.”

BE THERE

Junior golf: For information about the R.R. Gable Jr.-Adult Golf Tournament and upcoming tournaments, (818) 887-0749. To get on the LPGA waiting list, (310) 419-1980.