MAYFAIR AT HEAD OF CLASS; HE LEADS BY ONE AS FIELD FEELS OUT VALENCIA COURSE.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

Whenever a PGA tournament is moved temporarily to a new site, a learning curve usually applies.

At Valencia Country Club, which debuted as a whistle stop for the Nissan Open on Thursday, this curve followed the nasty break of one of those bumpy, unfamiliar greens.

Although some of the marquee players hovered close to the top of the leaderboard - notably Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson - many of the top names wrestled with the educational process . . . and came away with bruises.

That cleared a path for Billy Mayfair, who did some speed-reading of the greens, blazed to eight birdies, and took a one-stroke lead after the first round.

Mayfair's 6-under-par 65 was one stroke better than Stephen Ames and two ahead of a cluster of five golfers, including Mickelson and Scott Hoch.

Woods, who has been known to hang close to the leader on the first day of a tournament and mount his assaults over the weekend, was three strokes off the lead in a crowd of seven at 3-under 68.

Reading the greens, Mayfair said, ``is probably one of the hardest things out here. . . . We're not used to which way the greens are going to break all the time because we haven't played the golf course enough.''

As expected, swirling winds also presented some problems of adjustment. That's probably why many of the tournament's best-known players were well back in the pack.

Tom Lehman, defending champion Nick Faldo, Justin Leonard and Craig Stadler combined for 13 bogeys and one double-bogey (by Lehman) on a day of widespread aggravation.

Fred Couples, a two-time winner of the Nissan Open at its usual home of Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, said the educational process at Valencia is difficult ``for everybody.''

``It's doubly hard playing these greens. They're tough,'' he added. ``And with the wind howling, you hit up there and you don't know where you're going. One practice round is not enough.''

Couples fared better than many of his accomplished brethren, shooting a 1-under 70, a score matched by Leonard. Lehman, Faldo and Stadler, however, were all 2 over par, at 73.

Local knowledge, though, didn't help Duffy Waldorf much. Waldorf, an honorary member at Valencia who lives nearby and plays the course often, started at No. 10 early in the morning and proceeded to stagger through three bogeys and a double over the first eight holes he played. He recovered to finish at 1-over 72.

The challenges of assimilation were evident even in Woods' round. He may have finished only three strokes off the lead, but on the greens, he said, ``I hit three or four lips, so it could have been better.'' Even while starting in relentless wind in the early morning, Woods hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation, but he putted 33 times.

Said Mickelson: ``I was surprised to see the scores as low as they were. It wasn't that easy out there.''

On the day, 38 players broke par. Nineteen others were even.

Joining Mickelson and Hoch in third place (4-under 67s) were Keichiro Fukabori, Shigeki Maruyama and Mike Standly. Bunched with Woods another shot back were Tom Kite, Scott Verplank, P.H. Horgan III, Mark Wiebe, Jerry Kelly and Loren Roberts.

Last year, despairing over his shoddy performance on the tour, Mayfair, having missed the cut at the GTE Byron Nelson Classic in Irving, Texas, stumbled back to his hotel.

``My wife and I sat in a room in Dallas last year. We didn't want to be out there,'' he said. ``We were just so frustrated with how I was playing. We were ready to go out and pack it up for a few months.

`` `Go out and have fun out there.' That's easy to say. It's very difficult to do.''

Especially when a player has experienced a healthy portion of success. Mayfair was second in money earnings as recently as 1995, when he won two tournaments and had six finishes in the top 10.

But over the next year and a half, his game spiraled out of control. It began with a lot of bad breaks, he said. (``Hitting a good shot and it goes in the rough, or hitting the edge of the bunker and it rolls in the bunker.'')

Mayfair started tinkering with his game. And it was fatal. Now, he says, ``If I miss putts, I accept it. I don't try to change anything. Go on. Stay with what we're doing until we run out of holes.''

Most everything was working for him Thursday. On a day of eight birdies, his best shot, he said, occurred on a hole he parred. On No. 10, he was 215 yards out at the top of a hill, and drove the green - to within 6 feet of the pin - with a 4-iron. Mayfair missed that putt for birdie, but he shook it off quickly - sinking birdie putts of 15 feet, 12 feet and 15 feet on the next three holes.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Chart

PHOTO (1--Color) ``We were just so frustrated with how I was playing. We were ready to go out and pack it up for a few months. `Go out and have fun out there.' That's easy to say. It's very difficult to do.''

-- Billy Mayfair, on his performance last season

(2--Color) Nick Faldo watches his ball roll wide of the hole. The defending Nissan Open champion was eight strokes behind leader Billy Mayfair at 73.

Tina Gerson/Daily News

CHART: LEADERBOARD

Phil J. Krugel / Daily News