DEALING WITH ELEMENTS NOT ELEMENTARY AOKI EMERGES FROM HEAT, WIND, ROUGH TO LEAD BY ONE SHOT AFTER FIRST ROUND.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The Beer Man started fast, Isao Aoki came away with his first undisputed lead in six years, and Mike Reid rode the roller-coaster.

It left them bunched in the final threesome going into the second round of the SBC Classic today at Valencia Country Club, where wind, heat and thick rough combined to humble much of the rest of the Champions Tour field Friday.

Aoki fared best, posting a tournament-best 69 for a one-shot lead over Reid and former beer-truck driver/Southern California amateur golf legend Mark Johnson on a day the field averaged 75.481 - highest on tour this year by nearly a stroke and a half.

Des Smyth, Bob Gilder, Raymond Floyd and D.A. Weibring were at 71 and seven others, including reigning senior Player of the Year Craig Stadler and 2003 SBC Classic champion Tom Purtzer, were tied at 72. But the remainder of what started as a 78-man field finished over par - six of those over 80.

Wind contributed, gusting up to 20 miles per hour and making club selection difficult on approach shots. Rough, strengthened and lengthened after a rainy two months, presented as much of a problem.

Heat, in the mid-80s, also took its toll, forcing 2003 Senior PGA champion John Jacobs to drop out of the tournament midway through his final hole. He was taken to Henry Mayo Hospital in Newhall and remained overnight for observation.

Tour career money leader Hale Irwin shot 73, ending a streak of consecutive sub-par rounds at 11. Defending SBC champion Gil Morgan shot 76. Tour rookie and two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange shot 77.

Overall, the course was a big winner. But Valencia didn't hammer everyone.

``I'm happy with five birdies today,'' said Hall of Famer Aoki, who called his putting ``so-so today.'' Reid's experiences on the large and rolling greens of 6,940-yard Valencia were much more memorable - for all the right and wrong reasons.

He rolled in 20-foot birdie putts on Nos. 1 and 4, avoided putting altogether with a birdie chip-in on No. 3 and an eagle chip-in on No. 9, then three-putted from 1 1/2 feet for a bogey on No. 15.

``It was one of those days,'' said Reid, who thought his round was nicely summarized by a friend who asked afterward: ``Don't you realize the roller-coasters are across the street?''

Maybe so, but the party was at Robert Trent Jones. Sr.-designed Valencia, across the 5 Freeway from Magic Mountain - especially when the Beer Man's support crew rolled up on a bus from Johnson's High Desert hometown of Barstow.

The 14-time Southern California Amateur Golf Association champion, who teed off in the tournament's first group, was midway through his round when his fans arrived, and he admitted afterward to being appropriately pumped up for the occasion.

With his fiancee, brother, parents and longtime friends cheering him on, Johnson highlighted his Southern California professional tour debut and their experience with a 10-foot, 11-inch eagle putt on the 523-yard, par-5 15th hole.

``I had a lot of support and it was really awesome,'' said Johnson, the 2004 Champions Tour Qualifying School medalist who is playing his first full season on the tour. ``My mom and dad were here today. It was the first time they saw me play in a pro event.''

Don ``Lefty'' Johnson and his wife, Jackie, were treated to a show to the end, as their son completed a four-birdie, one-eagle round with a 25- foot, 5-inch birdie putt on his final hole.

``It was a great feeling to make that putt at No. 18,'' the Beer Man said. ``My parents saw it go in. I wanted to play well today with the people here.''

Mission accomplished, and with it some more sleep time but maybe also more wind time.

After being the second player to tee off Friday, at 7:30 a.m., and beating the wind for most of the first round, Johnson will be in the final group today, starting at 12:05 p.m.

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Mark Johnson chips onto the 18th green en route to a 2-under- par 70 Friday.

(2) Hale Irwin chips out of a sand trap on the second hole at Valencia Country Club on Friday, a day his streak of consecutive sub-par rounds was ended at 11.

David Crane/Staff Photographer