FALDO APPROACHING LOFTY CROWD : HIS MAIN OPPONENT AT PRESENT IS HISTORY.

Byline: Ron Sirak Associated Press 

Watching Nick Faldo play golf is like watching a master mechanic tinker with an expensive engine. Adjust the timing. Get the fuel flow just right. Make it purr.

And when Faldo is hitting on all cylinders - a rarity, he says - he ranks among the best ever. He showed that game over the weekend with a relentless three-shot victory at the Nissan Open.

Maybe it was because the Masters is only six weeks away, but Faldo kicked his game into high gear at Riviera Country Club and displayed once again what a precision player he is - just like he did in his masterful final-round 67 at Augusta last year.

One of the astonishing things about Faldo is that he always seems to be working on a golf course. Sometimes he is working at winning - as he did over the weekend at Riviera.

But other times it seems even in the course of a tournament that Faldo is working on his game. Tinkering, fine tuning, refining. The gears of thought can almost be heard grinding.

Faldo has clearly entered a phase of his career where his main opponent is history - names like Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player.

The flesh-and-blood opponents - Greg Norman, Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els this week at Doral - are mere incidentals who occasionally get in the way on Faldo's march to greatness.

``When Faldo stands on the course with his arms folded, his body language is saying that he's the only person on the course,'' Tom Lehman said.

Faldo never hits a careless golf shot. Yet there are times - when he is not in his major-championship mode, when he is out of contention - when it seems like he is trying to perfect something he can use on another, more important day.

``I think I'm a player who has to be inspired,'' Faldo said after winning at Riviera. ``I think it's everything - the atmosphere, the golf course, everything.''

The victory was Faldo's sixth on the PGA Tour and three of those earned him the green jacket that goes to the Masters champion.

``I'm not one who can just roll up and play,'' Faldo said. ``I need something to get me going.''

His inspiration at Riviera was one of the greats he is chasing through history.

``This is not just another win,'' Faldo said. ``Riviera has a great history, and I know it was a favorite of Ben Hogan's. This is the kind of course where I was meant to win, and I played exactly how I wanted to.''

Hogan is one of only 10 players to have won more than the six majors championships Faldo has - three Masters and three British Opens.

What Faldo plays for now, at age 39, is adding to that total of major championships.

``Golf is very much for me No. 1, and I'm making it more so,'' Faldo said late last year. ``I love golf. I love playing. I love practicing. I've still got five, six, seven years - whatever. I'm working as hard as ever. It's what makes me happiest - when I'm playing golf as well as I can.''

Faldo has given every indication early in this season that he is capable of a very big year. Remember, this is a man who says the Grand Slam is ``difficult, but not impossible.''

He has played 15 competitive rounds in 1997, including four at the Johnnie Walker in Australia, and only one has been over par, a 1-over 73 in the final round at Pebble Beach.

The Masters is only six weeks away and that has Faldo's attention, but what he really wants is to win the two major championships that have eluded him.

``I still want to do more,'' Faldo said. ``I very much would like to win all four majors. I want to try and do something in the U.S. Open and the PGA now. I want to prepare as well as I can for each one.''

Only four players have won all four Grand Slam events - Gene Sarazen, Hogan, Nicklaus and Player.

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Photo

Photo: ``When Faldo stands on the course with his arms folded, his body language is saying that he's the only person on the course.''

- Tom Lehman

on Nick Faldo's intensity