GREEN LIGHT

Tiger Woods and David Duval are definitely used to the limelight but how about the floodlights?

Lights have been installed on the eighth and ninth holes, which will be played as the 17th and 18th, at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks for the Shootout at Sherwood on Monday.

The made-for-television event starts at 4:30 p.m., with ABC picking up play at No. 5, which should give the top two players in the world time to finish 18 holes before darkness. If the match-play duel goes to a playoff, Woods and Duval will play the last two holes, over and over if necessary, until somebody wins.

“We investigated what kind of light we still had at 8 o’clock at night in California at that time,” said producer Jack Graham of ABC Sports, which is making the Shootout at Sherwood the first golf event to be televised in prime time on network television.

“We felt there was enough light to play until just about 8 o’clock. If it goes longer, we have a company which is convinced it can light the last two holes well enough to be able to play.”

Whether they play under the lights or in the dark, there is precedence in golf history.

Nick Faldo made his winning putt on the second extra hole of the 1989 Masters in gathering darkness after Scott Hoch missed what amounted to a gimme that would have given him the title on the previous hole.

Jeff Maggert won the 1993 Walt Disney World Classic at Lake Buena Vista, Fla., in the dark when cars with their lights on were driven close to the 18th green so he could see to putt out.

Not exactly Gabby Hartnett’s “Homer in the Gloamin’ ” to help the Chicago Cubs win the National League pennant in 1938 or Ron VanderKelen of Wisconsin throwing passes in semi-darkness in the closing minutes of a 42-37 loss to USC in the 1963 Rose Bowl, but it’s the best golf has to offer.

If it gets dark in this game, they just come back the next day.

The only time a PGA Tour event was played under the lights was in the 1969 Alameda County Open at Sunol Golf Course in the Bay Area.

The course was equipped for night play with lights on tall palm trees. When it got dark in the final round of the first and only Alameda County Open, the lights were turned on so local favorite Dick Lotz of Hayward could finish up his victory.

Of course, the Woods-Duval shootout is match play, so it might be over before the 17th hole.

But that’s not what ABC wants to hear.

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Woods has never played in the Shark Shootout, an unofficial PGA Tour event hosted by Greg Norman, which has been played at Sherwood Country Club in November every year since 1989.

When Woods was making his meteoric rookie run in 1996, he said he was told by International Management Group--which represents him and is involved in the Shark Shootout--that he would be playing in the tournament that year.

Norman reportedly was pushed out of shape because he usually does the inviting. Woods’ invitation was put on hold and by the time Norman asked him, Woods had committed to playing elsewhere.

Woods won’t be playing this year either because he has committed to play Nov. 11-14 in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Taiwan, an event sanctioned by the European PGA Tour and the PGA Tour of Australasia. That’s the same weekend as the Shark Shootout.

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Duval played in the Shark Shootout at Sherwood two years ago, teaming with Hoch in the pairs event, and his memories are good and bad.

Hoch and Duval shot 58 in the final round and had a two-stroke lead over Scott McCarron and Bruce Lietzke after Hoch sank an eagle putt on the 16th hole.

McCarron and Lietzke pulled even with an eagle of their own on 16 and Lietzke followed with a birdie on 17 for a one-stroke lead.

Duval and Hoch both drove into the rough on the final hole and incredibly both hit their approach shots into the lake that guards the green.

“It was freaky, what happened to us,” Duval said. “You don’t make bogeys in this [scramble] format.”

In fact, that was one of only two bogeys made by the field that day.

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John Phillips, director of golf at Sherwood, said the club’s membership is looking forward to the match, especially since it will have little impact on their own golf.

The course is closed on Mondays.

“The members are excited,” Phillips said. “This doesn’t really inconvenience them. We’re going to shut down the 10th tee at 3 p.m. Sunday and we’re asking them to keep carts off the fairways, but that’s about it.

“We gave all of them a couple of clubhouse tickets and everyone I’ve talked to is excited to come out and watch. They’re proud of the course and like to see it shown off.”

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Grounds tickets for the Shootout at Sherwood are available for $100 at www.tickets.com, or by calling (800) TICKETS.

Clubhouse passes, which include VIP parking and parties before and after the match, sell for $550.