G342

Thwack. Wusssssssh. Kerplunk.

With each towering tee shot that Tiger Woods sends through the air and each putt he sinks, the 24-year-old wunderkind is revolutionizing the game of golf. Not content with rewriting the record books, Woods is on a mission to spread the game's reach.

On this stormy morning, he huddles under a tent with more than two dozen junior golfers, giving tips until lightning forces the action indoors.

Those kids and 2,000 more pack into the city's Municipal Auditorium this afternoon to watch Woods demonstrate how he bounces a ball on his club in a popular Nike commercial, adding a 180-degree spin to the routine.

He takes more questions, and one gets to the crux of his crusade:

Why aren't girl golfers taken more seriously? Madalyn Radlauer, 14, wants to know.

"Golf needs to be more inclusive, but that takes time," says Woods, who conducts several junior golf clinics each year through his Tiger Woods Foundation. "My advice is to keep fighting for what's right and keep playing -- because the better you play, the more they let you in."

Later, Madalyn, who started playing two years ago, says she thinks Woods' powerful presence will draw more children to the game. "Because he is black, Tiger playing says it doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter if you're a girl or a guy. It just matters that you go out there, have fun and do well."

The cartoons-and-wrestling crowd have been glued to Woods' exploits lately on TV and are begging their parents for lessons so they can be like Tiger.

"I consider him an interracial Pied Piper," says Tiger's father, Earl Woods, who nurtured an interest in golf that his son had even as an infant. Tiger's impact on kids and golf, he predicts, "will get bigger instead of smaller."

Kids are the fastest-growing category of golfers, according to the National Golf Foundation, which says that 836,000 children ages 5 to 11 played last year. That's more than double the 333,000 who played in 1986, the NGF says.

"He's got kids coming out of the woodwork," says Bill Dickey, president of the National Minority Junior Golf Scholarship Association and a mentor at the clinic coordinated by the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. "You see gang kids at the driving range. Maybe some kid decides he doesn't want to be in a gang anymore."

With a beaming smile, the charismatic Woods has become the most engaging golf personality since Arnold Palmer or Nancy Lopez. His face adorns the current Time. Beyond attracting kids to the game, he has done what even golf lovers may have thought impossible: He's made the sport hip.

"Golf used to be an incredibly uncool sport, an elitist country- club kind of sport. Now it has become cool. It's undergone this great people's revolution led by Tiger Woods," says Michael Caruso, editor in chief of Maximum Golf, a new magazine aimed at young male golfers (18-39). Its September issue has Woods on the cover, too.

In terms of cachet, the game "is enormously more popular than it was 10 or 20 years ago," says Bob Cullen, author of the new Why Golf? The Mystery of the Game Revisited (Simon & Schuster, $22). "It used to be thought of as being played by white-bread, blond, pink- polyester-wearing clones. Now the world's most dynamic and successful athlete is a multiracial golfer."

Woods' emergence "has certainly fueled" interest, making it more likely that families and younger people will give golf a swing than in the past, says NGF president Joe Beditz. But he suggests that increased TV coverage and celebrity preoccupation with the game also have energized a steady rise in the number of golfers. Since 1986, total golfers have increased from 19.9 million to 26.4 million, the foundation says.

An additional 40 million people would like to try golf or have tried it and would like to play more.

"We're measuring our highest interest ever," Beditz says. "I think people have hooked into (this idea that playing golf) is a cool thing."

Golf attracts a who's-who these days, from Celine Dion and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Clint Eastwood and Malcolm in the Middle's Frankie Muniz. Sports greats John Elway, Jerry Rice and Michael Jordan are avid golfers. Captains of technology such as Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy and Microsoft's Bill Gates, who was seen in a commercial for club maker Callaway Golf, smack the ball around, too.

The sport's trendiness hasn't escaped clothing designers such as Giorgio Armani, Liz Claiborne, Perry Ellis, Tommy Hilfiger and Prada; all have new lines of golf attire.

"Younger people and fashion are definitely creeping into golf because golf is getting more mainstream," says Scott Rosan, 29, who owns The Nines, an upscale golf fashion shop in the trendy Manayunk section of Philadelphia. "Everybody is playing. You are hard-pressed to find a person who hasn't been exposed to game a little bit. You play and get hooked."

But clearly, Woods is driving much of the surge. Ratings records were set during all of his major victories, and Woods' eight-stroke victory at St. Andrews last month was the most-watched British Open ever, ABC says. "In the TV age, there have been two people who have attracted viewers beyond their sport," NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said after Woods' U.S. Open victory in June. "They are Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods clearly is the third one."

Woods hopes to use his ambassadorship to break down golf's barriers. "The kids I'm trying to reach are in the inner city, and traditionally they've always been told, 'No, you can't achieve this,' or 'You can't achieve that.' They aren't allowed to dream because it's not realistic, and I think that's wrong," he says. "The traditions of the game, the morals and values that are instilled in you when you play the game of golf, I think that's what a lot of kids need in their lives."

Guardians of the game plan to capitalize on golf's current boom. The NGF, course operators, equipment makers and the professional tours are collaborating on a national initiative to increase access with welcome centers providing instruction on golf skills, rules and etiquette. The program is expected to offer affordable avenues to the game for kids and families, while increasing retention of newcomers.

Already, experts are debating the Tiger Effect on the future of golf. In sheer numbers, "it might be several years before we see how many people who wouldn't have taken up the game have taken it up because it is cool," says Larry Dorman of Callaway Golf.

Some wonder whether Woods' popularity is enough to offset the barriers associated with the sport. Playing golf "is a lot harder than Tiger makes it look," says author Cullen. "He certainly might have an impact on the number of people who play once in a while, but I'm not sure how much that will affect the number who become steady- to-avid golfers."

Cost is a factor, too. Children's golf clubs can be had for as little as $12 to $15 at used sporting goods stores but can run $300 or more for a set. Although some sports groups offer free youth lessons, individual sessions typically start at $25 and go as high as $500 for week-long camps. Courses have kids' discounts, but a round of golf is seldom available for less than $10.

"Unless you find a way for kids to play occasionally for a limited amount of money, all the clinics Tiger holds in the world aren't going to make a difference," Cullen says.

Golf remains a symbol of affluence, says Maximum Golf's Caruso, but he's hopeful that could change, having noted at the British Open that golf is a working-class game in Scotland. "Here in America, it took this weird turn and became an elite, snobby sport. We're trying to reclaim the sport for the people."

And in the end, if golf becomes too popular, could that harm the character of the game?

"Golf has a particular culture, and if it's watered down either through a lot of new people coming to the game or through technology, a great deal would be lost," says Russell Bowie, a New Orleans golfer and parent whose kids participate in a junior golf league.

But at Woods' clinic in New Orleans, Edwin Turner is content to savor the moment. As a teen, he worked as a caddie. After hours, Turner says, "we did what they call sneaking onto the golf course. We wouldn't play no more than two, maybe three holes, and then we would get run off."

Watching Woods' ascent got his son, Raynell, 15, interested in the sport, too. "I try to copy Tiger's attitude," Raynell says.

The elder Turner gestures, taking in a group of black men accompanying their children. "Every one of those men out there, they didn't have an opportunity to play," Turner says. "Now (the children) have an opportunity. They get their kids to play, and if their kids win, then they, too, are winning."