A LITTLE MORE OF THE ROUGH STUFF SENIORS ASKED FOR TOUGHER COURSES. REALLY.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

That thought could be occurring to many PGA Senior Tour players this week as they attempt to hack out of rugged rough and navigate the large and roly-poly greens of Valencia Country Club at the SBC Senior Classic.

The rank and file of this tour for players aged 50 and over are getting another taste - perhaps their most difficult yet to swallow - of what they told tour officials they wanted: tougher playing conditions.

Talk about an organization being responsive to the wishes of its members.

``This course is set up as difficult as any course we play,'' reigning tour Player of the Year Larry Nelson said of the 36-year-old Robert Trent Jones. Sr.-designed layout, which will play to 6,905 yards and a par of 72 this week.

``If it firmed up,'' Nelson added of a Valencia course that remains damp from early-week rain, ``it would be as much of a test as any course we've played since we've been out here.''

They have only themselves to blame.

Senior Tour members voted by an overwhelming majority at the end of last season that they wanted tougher playing conditions this year. Not that they are complaining about the longer rough, firmer greens and devilish pin placements that their year-end poll produced.

``I actually think it's good for us,'' two-time Player of the Year Jim Colbert said. ``We're old enough. We're supposed to know how to hit it straight.''

Colbert and Nelson are part of a 78-man field, including three-time defending champion Joe Inman, that will play today through Sunday. PGA Tour major champions Tom Kite, Hale Irwin and Ray Floyd are other high-profile players in a field that includes recent hot performers Bob Gilder, Mike McCullough and Jose Maria Canizares - each a first-time senior winner in the past three weeks.

They and the rest of the tour have been coping all season with tougher courses, something Colbert says has been an ongoing process.

``It's really been the past three or four years,'' Colbert said. ``It's just been a gradual thing, but it's really because the players are just there. The ones coming out are in better shape, they play better.''

Colbert said the biggest change he's seen this year has been the rough.

``They've been bringing it up the last few years, but they made a major step this year. Look at this stuff,'' he said, burying the head of his club in Riviera's ryegrass rough. ``... I actually think is good for us.''

Howard Twitty, a third-year senior who played more than two decades on the PGA Tour, thinks pin placement has been the biggest challenge this year.

``Pin position is as tough or tougher than the regular tour, and the reason I say that is that in 25 years on the regular tour, I never saw pins that were three yards from the edge of the green,'' Twitty said. ``We have them here on a weekly basis. It's tough to get (an approach shot) close when you can fall over from the pin and touch the edge of the green.''

Valencia also could challenge the seniors with some scary putts, if the tournament escapes any more rain and if the usual Santa Clarita Valley winds firm up the greens.

``If we didn't have any rain this week,'' Nelson said, ``on Sunday, even par would be a good score.''

Kite, who played at Valencia when the PGA Tour's Nissan Open was shifted there from Riviera Country Club in 1998, remembers how tough Valencia played then and how much the players liked it.

He said he is looking forward to that kind of challenge and enjoyment again and he thinks a lot of others are, as well.

``I think the mandate from the players is, 'Let's set the golf courses up a little more difficult so we can show off the skills the players have.' ''

With short courses, wide fairways, soft greens and pins set in the middle of greens, as was often the case when the Senior Tour started, there wasn't as much need for high-skill shots, Kite said. He thinks tougher courses like Valencia make for more interesting golf.

``You're not going to be putting (in regulation) on every hole,'' he said. ``You're going to have some chip shots and difficult pitches and some bunker shots and some recovery shots on a golf course this challenging.''

And don't be fooled by those low pro-am scores, said Inman, after Bruce Summerhays shot 63 and Dana Quigley 64 on Thursday, with lift-and-clean rules in effect.

``Psychologically, when you know you can pick it up and move it ...'' Inman said. ``I tell you, (today) is going to be a whole different game.''

As Christy O'Connor Sr. put it: ``This is as tough a course as you could want.''

Bring it on, is the consensus of his senior mates.

Check again Sunday evening.

PGA SENIORS

What: SBC Senior Classic

When: Today-Sunday

Where: Valencia Country Club (par-72, 6,905 yards)

Defending champion: Joe Inman

Course record: Tony Chieffo (64 at 7,076 yards)

Purse: $1.4 million ($210,000 to winner)

Tickets: $15 daily (661/254-3303

Parking: Today $5 at Magic Mountain; Saturday-Sunday $5 at College of the Canyons (free shuttle to the course from both lots)

TV: PAX Today (11 a.m.-1 p.m.); CNBC Saturday-Sunday (3-5 p.m. both days)

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo: Howard Twitty says tougher pin placements are one way the PGA Senior Tour has become more difficult in comparison to previous years.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

Box: PGA SENIORS (see text)