By LEE PACE

Talk about dominating golfers. This one hits it longer—a lot longer—than the competition. Displays an excellent touch around the greens as well. Will settle for nothing short of first place. Wins tournaments in bunches. Draws admiration and sometimes jealousy as well from peers. Media follows every move. A fan favorite to watch.

Tiger Woods?

Maybe, if you want to talk about Eldrick-come-latelys.

But Babe Didrikson Zaharias was every bit as formidable and dominating in her era as Tiger Woods is today.

If you think Woods’ 2000 season of nine wins was impressive, consider that Zaharias won 14 consecutive tournaments and 17 events overall in about 14 months’ time in 1946-47. Her only tournament miscue during the stretch was a match-play loss in the 1946 U.S. Women’s Open, held in late August in Spokane, Wash. She came back to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the Texas Women’s Open that fall, then reeled off 12 straight in 1947.

Just as Tiger won three majors in 2000, Babe one-half century before captured all three of the ladies’ majors—the Open, the Titleholders and the Western.

Tiger won a men’s Open by 15 in 2000. Babe won the women’s by 12 in 1954.

Tiger hits 3-woods and wedges on holes where others pound a driver and 7-iron. Babe blasted tee shots 50 yards by her competitors.

"Babe changed the game of golf for women," fellow LPGA Hall of Famer Patty Berg says. "She brought the LPGA along and possessed a power game that led to lower scores and more excitement. She brought humor and showmanship to the game."

Peggy Kirk Bell, owner of Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, was close friends, a frequent opponent and a sometimes partner with Zaharias during the latter’s decade in the golf limelight from 1946-56. She’s an encyclopedia of good Babe stories.

Bell remembers sitting in hotel rooms more than 50 years ago and listening as Zaharias negotiated with sponsors to create tournaments for a band of hardy but unorganized lady golfers.

"Babe, we’ll pay you $1,000 to come play an exhibition," some club pro or widget manufacturer in Rochester or Milwaukee might say.

"I’ll tell you what," Babe would counter. "You put up $2,000, and I’ll come and bring a bunch of girls with me. I’ll keep $500 and the girls will play for $1,500.’"

Presto—you’ve got a golf tournament.

"She could get $1,000 for herself for an exhibition, playing with men pros, but she wanted to compete," Bell says. "Her idea of golf was to beat someone in formal competition. That’s the way she was through all her athletic career."

Zaharias was known for her remarkable length. Playing with famed sports writer Grantland Rice one day, she reached a 523-yard par-five hole in two shots. Another time she was playing an exhibition with Sam Snead, and, driving from the same tees, Babe outdrove Sam on one hole. Snead accused her of playing with a souped-up ball.

Woods has influenced today’s professional game by showing golfers they can lift weights to build strength, flexibility and stamina. Zaharias molded her tour with a new swing style.

"The swing used to be based on the Scottish method," Berg says. "We hit waist high, flat. Babe would swing high and hard."

Being so good and so powerful on a golf tour, however, lends credence to the saying, "It’s lonely at the top." Woods knows the feeling. Babe Zaharias did as well.

Bell remembers someone complaining in a players’ meeting about Babe receiving appearance money at tournaments. Zaharias was quick with a response.

"I’m the star of this show and all of you are in the chorus," she said. "I receive some money and if it weren’t for me, half of our tournaments wouldn’t have a purse and wouldn’t even be."

Zaharias wound up winning 41 professional tournaments, including 31 after the LPGA was officially formed in 1950. There’s no telling how many tournaments she might have won had it not been for the cancer that eventually took her life in 1956.

"The women’s tour hit a lull after Babe died," says Bell, whose family hosts the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open for a second time at Pine Needles May 31-June 3. "Then Mickey Wright came along and picked it back up. After that you had a string of really good players—Kathy Whitworth, JoAnne Carner, Judy Rankin, Nancy Lopez.

"Everyone out there owes a debt of gratitude to Babe."

Where Woods and Zaharias go their own ways are in the areas of ego and interests off the golf course.

Babe loved the limelight, loved joking with the media and was interactive with galleries.

"She was the Walter Hagen or Lee Trevino of women’s golf," says Bell. "She was entertaining to the galleries. She’d hit a good one and turn to the guys watching behind her. ‘Don’t you fellows wish you could hit it like that?’ she’d say. They really laughed. And she was a genius at using the press to further her cause and that of women’s golf."

Of course, the demands of media, fans and sponsors 50 years ago could be shoved into a thimble compared to today. Babe might well be different in a world of the Internet, autograph hounds and corporate sponsorship.

Tiger’s shown no significant talents off the golf course and, true to form of most his peers, says "fishing and sports" are his favorite pastimes.

Babe made a name for herself before becoming a golf champion in the 1932 Olympics, winning two gold medals. She was a terrific musician, particularly with the harmonica. Name her a tune and she could play it. She’d performed Vaudeville before taking up golf seriously and was on The Ed Sullivan Show. She was outstanding in basketball and baseball. She would beat you at tennis, marbles and swimming. She was a great cook (she had two ovens in her kitchen), a fast and accurate typist, a talented seamstress. She’d be ironing a blouse somewhere and say, "I’m the best ironer there is."

"And, she probably was," says Bell.

Tiger and The Babe.

Even a touch of mustard to their names as well.