Lopez Tees Up with the Big Boys -- and Girl

Nancy Lopez has won 48 times on the LPGA Tour. Shes a three-time major champion, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987.

Yet, she compared herself to a munchkin recently.

It has nothing to do with her stature in the game, but in relation to her fellow competitors in the Kraft/Nabisco Shoot-Out presented by Albertsons.

Lopez will team with Hank Kuehne to take on Michelle Wie and John Daly in the nine-hole, better-ball format. The skins-style match will take place at the Hillcrest Country Club in Boise, Idaho. The event will air live on The Golf Channel Monday Sept. 15, at 5:00 PM ET and replay in primetime at 8:00PM ET.

Im excited, its going to be a lot of fun, Lopez said. Its always fun to play that kind of format, especially with the guys.

The Shoot-Out benefits the mens and womens golf teams at Boise State University and University of Idaho. Wie and Daly will represent Boise State, while Lopez and Kuehne will try and bulk up Idahos bank account.

Kuehne and Daly are the two longest hitters on the PGA Tour, while Wie regularly bombs the ball in excess of 300 yards. Daly, who finished 10th in the inaugural Ben Hogan Boise Open in 1990, has topped the tour’s driving distance category a record 11 times. He is currently second on the list for 2003 behind Kuehne, who is averaging 319.6 yards per pop.

And I can only hit like 240, at the most, laughed Lopez.

To add to her concerns, Lopez is trying to get accustomed to an entire new set of clubs and battling a bout of vertigo.

My golf clubs were stolen two months ago from the airlines. Ive really been trying to find some clubs to hit, said Lopez. I have been practicing ' but nothing I really feel good about. I do have some clubs that Im hitting good, but Im not really sure how far theyre going.

Physically, Im feeling better. But it cost me a weeks worth of practice.

The 46-year-old legend has played before with Daly, but this will be her first up-close encounter with Kuehne and Wie.

Wies work wont be done after nine holes. The 13-year-old phenomenon will be competing in the Nationwide Tours Albertsons Boise Open. The Golf Channel will broadcast all four rounds beginning Thursday at 5:00 PM ET.

She will become the first female junior amateur golfer ever to compete in a mens PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

This will be Wies second professional event of the season playing alongside the men. She shot 74-79 to miss the cut by five strokes at the Canadian Tours Bay Mills Open in August.

She has made four cuts in five starts this season on the LPGA Tour, with her best finish coming in a tie for ninth at the Kraft Nabisco LPGA Championship, where she was the youngest player ever to make the cut in an LPGA event.

Wie won this year’s U.S. Womens Public Links Championship, becoming the youngest player to capture a United States Golf Association title.