AS NISSAN OPEN FILL-IN HOST, CLUB MAY BE SETTING STAGE FOR FUTURE PRO TOURNAMENTS.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

It's strictly a caretaking opportunity. A stand-in role. But indirectly, it is a chance to build a case for recognition - and for future consideration.

The golf pros will undoubtedly need a map to find it - also a full tank of gas - but this year's Nissan Open moves from the stately elegance of its longtime home, Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, to the nouveau riche domain of Valencia Country Club, which sits in a great red sea of tile roofs, hard by garish Magic Mountain, far to the north of Los Angeles.

Venerable Riviera surrendered this week's Nissan because its 1998 dance card was full, the club having booked a Senior Tour major this summer, the U.S. Senior Open. Valencia, a public course as recently as 11 years ago, was secured as a stand-in, and thus gets a prime opportunity to demonstrate its desirability as a regular future stop on the Senior PGA, LPGA or (as a longer shot) PGA tours. Not that anyone is making so bold an admission, though.

``We don't think of anything in the future,'' said Ken Kikuchi, president of the club.

``I think what we're looking at here,'' added head pro Rick Smith, ``is a one-shot opportunity. We want to get by this one time, hopefully looking good and getting some good response from the players and the sponsors. And then, if everything goes well, sit back and see if something happens. If it leads to some things down the road - a senior event or whatever - then it gives us an opportunity to look at those as they arise. If they arise.

``. . . We're looking at it as a very unique opportunity and an opportunity to showcase the facility.''

Actually, Valencia is not a particularly well-kept secret. The Senior, LPGA and Nike tours have sent some feelers onto its grounds in recent years. And the PGA, which used this course for U.S. Open qualifying in '93 and '95, was impressed on a stopgap basis. ``It was a viable alternative that the Junior Chamber (of Commerce, the event's managing body) was happy with, and we felt it was a good-enough golf course to hold a tournament,'' said the PGA's Dave Lancer.

There was some initial concern that many of the big-name pros would turn up their noses at this suburban upstart, but that has occurred only to a minimal extent.

Last year's Nissan boasted 19 of the top 30 on the previous year's money list, including seven of the top 10. This year's features only 12 of the top 30 money-leaders in '97, and only four of the top 10.

But the field is glittery nonetheless, in part because an aggressive roundup of corporate sponsors boosted the purse by $700,000 over last year's figure, to $2.1 million. The entry list includes '97 Player of the Year Tiger Woods and '96 Player of the Year Tom Lehman (who skipped last year's Nissan), plus such Young Turks as Justin Leonard and Phil Mickelson and popular veterans like Fred Couples, Craig Stadler and defending champion Nick Faldo.

``It's an excellent field - as good, if not slightly better, than we've had,'' said tournament director Tom Pulchinski.

``I think we got over that hurdle of getting some of the big names,'' said Smith. ``We got them. Now, hopefully, the weather's going to be good, they're going to play the course, they're going to enjoy it, and that will get us over our next hurdle: letting people know that there is another golf course out here that is championship-caliber.''

Eventually, there will be two. A prestigious Tournament Players Club, to be built just across the 5 Freeway from Valencia CC, is on the drawing board. Valencia says it welcomes another top-caliber course in the area and does not see it as unwanted future competition for a pro tournament.

This week's Nissan Open, Pulchinski said, ``gives the community the opportunity to show that if it's not Valencia Country Club, the new TPC course they're putting in across the way makes the area ready to hold a major event.''

The hope is that the pros will like what they find - weather, of course, permitting.

Valencia, designed by the reputable Robert Trent Jones Sr., features a lot of dogleg-right fairways, large greens with plenty of curvature, a liberal complement of bunkers, plus a feature Riviera is utterly devoid of: water. Players must take water hazards into account on about eight holes.

``It's a traditional layout,'' said Smith. ``It's not target golf. Just flat-out hit it.''

Already this year, Valencia has served notice of its championship worth. Couples played a practice round here last month; the next week he won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in Bermuda Dunes. More recently, Hiromi Kobayashi stopped in for a practice round the day before the Los Angeles Women's Championship opened at Glendale's Oakmont Country Club; she promptly blazed to a commanding lead, at 5-under par, on the first day of the tournament.

From a fan standpoint, Valencia figures to offer some assets that the Nissan Open's customary home can't match. Riviera is tucked into a quiet residential neighborhood of narrow, winding streets, and transit and parking can be nightmarish. This was especially true last year, when Woods' presence resulted in a record turnout of 129,236 for the weekend, including 42,924 on the final day.

``Last year, on Friday, I went to Riviera,'' said Valencia's Kikuchi. ``I left when the tournament was still going and it still took me 45 minutes to get to the 405 (Freeway).''

Valencia, by contrast, is in an area of wide-open spaces. It will offer parking at Magic Mountain to the north and College of the Canyons to the south. And it is a wedge from the 5 Freeway.

Valencia, of course, can't come close to matching Riviera's rich heritage. Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan waged legendary battles there in the late-'40s when the tournament was called the Los Angeles Open, and Hogan, a back-to-back winner, has an alley of holes named after him.

``We're a baby when it comes to that,'' said Valencia's Smith.

But this week's tournament represents an important first step.

``Maybe this kind of thing is gradual,'' Kikuchi said. ``If many play here, maybe they will like it.''

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PHOTO (Color) Welcome to Valencia

February 26 - March 1 / NISSAN OPEN / Valencia, CA

Photo by David Sprague