IT'S THE TOUR OF OPPORTUNITY; FOREIGN PLAYERS SEEK RICHES ON SENIOR PGA.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Daily News Staff Writer

They constitute 8 percent of the fully exempt players on this year's Senior PGA Tour and nearly 16 percent of the tour's winners during the past season and a half.

Meet the elite of the foreign contingent, the most consistent senior element this side of Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan. Australia's Graham Marsh is its poster boy of the moment, given his status as defending champion in the U.S. Senior Open.

But Marsh routinely yields the spotlight to fellow Aussies Bruce Crampton and David Graham, South Africans John Bland and Hugh Baiocchi, Argentina's Vincente Fernandez, Japan's Isao Aoki or England's Brian Barnes - winners all since the start of the 1997 senior-tour season.

Barnes, the barrel-chested former Ryder Cup member and most recent foreign winner, thinks foreign success on the American senior tour stems from opportunity and relativity.

``This is the place to make your nest egg,'' said Barnes, ``because unfortunately the European tour, going back to the 1960s and '70s, was small peanuts.''

But, he added, while players on the European tour were laboring for smaller wages, they also were honing their games in adverse conditions and on courses far less manicured than what they see weekly on the Senior PGA Tour. The contrast, Barnes said, can work wonders for the confidence.

``The two great things about American golf is every single week you know the course is going to be in the best condition possible, and 99.9 percent of the time you're going to get around in short-sleeved shirts,'' Barnes said.

For the towering Barnes, strolling the U.S. fairways with rolled-up sleeves displaying his lumberjack-sized biceps, it seems at times he has arrived in golf heaven.

``From one week to the next in Europe, even in the the bloody height of summer, there's no guarantee you're not going to have to wear two sweaters,'' he said. ``And then all of a sudden a wind of 40 miles an hour comes up and you've got to struggle around with those conditions.''

Beyond better-groomed courses, calmer conditions and a bigger payday in what Barnes calls ``the second bud of the cherry,'' foreign players often bring considerable if unheralded skill to the senior tour. Barnes achieved more fame than most by defeating Jack Nicklaus twice in one day during the 1975 Ryder Cup when Nicklaus was at the height of his game.

Others arrived with less celebrity but plenty of game. John Bland won the late-season 1995 Ralphs Senior Open at Wilshire Country Club in his second senior start - after winning a Monday qualifier to get into the tournament. The next year he won $1.3 million and was named senior rookie of the year.

``The caliber of play is pretty good, but they're just not that well known out of America,'' said Baiocchi, Bland's South African countrymate who was a candidate for 1997 senior tour rookie of the year.

``All these guys are the same,'' Baiocchi said. ``They've won tournaments in Europe, and while the European tour is not as competitive as the U.S. tour, it's still a pretty decent tour.

``As long as you play somewhere, it doesn't matter where you're playing. They came over with good games and strong, competitive minds. That's why they're doing so well.''

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Fincham said the impact of foreign players could grow just because of competition.

``One of the unique things about the senior tour is that it really doesn't share many of the top players in the world over 50 anymore,'' he said. ``They are all here.''

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PHOTO (Color) Scotland's Brian Barnes is one of the many foreigners who've been successful on the senior tour.

Mike Ridewood/Associated Press