ROOTING FOR RIVIERA.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

PACIFIC PALISADES - I hope the golf course was listening the other day when the PGA Tour's latest long-driving hotshot sauntered into the Nissan Open press tent and said, basically, this Riviera Country Club doesn't look so tough.

``I guess it sets up pretty good for me,'' said J.B. Holmes, a genial 23- year-old from Kentucky who has made a splash with a tournament victory last month in Scottsdale, Ariz., and a 313.5-yard driving average this season.

If a golf course can't hear, then I hope it'll read the phenom's wordson a bulletin board somewhere and take them as a challenge.

``I think it's more of a long-ball hitter's course,'' Holmes said, meaning the type that's receptive to his game. ``There are definitely some (holes) where you can take advantage of your length.''

Now, a muscular young golfer saying Riviera Country Club ``sets up pretty good for me'' isn't quite as bad as a climber saying the top of Everest looks like a sweet place for a picnic. But for chutzpah, it's up there.

The 80th edition of the tournament known as the Nissan Open begins its four-day run this morning with a 144-player field that includes Tiger Woods and such notables as Jason Gore, Fred Couples, John Daly, Ernie Els, Corey Pavin and Mike Weir.

The competition among the players is only part of the fun, though. There's also the competition between the players and the course.

I'm rooting for the course to get fired up and teach these kids a little respect. Go, big fella.

The ancient rivalry between golfers and golf courses has changed in recent years as, mostly thanks to changes in ball and club technology, players have been hitting longer and longer. Since 1990, when the PGA Tour leader in driving distance had a 279.6-yard average, that number has grown by 39.3 yards.

It used to be that a young player might feel daunted by the challenge of outwitting a wily old foe like Riviera. Now, he expects to simply overpower it.

Geoff Shackelford, the Riviera historian, said he was struck by Holmes' confidence, coming as it did from a tour rookie whose experience with the course's twists and turns consisted of one practice round.

``It used to be that you needed some experience and seasoning to play this course,'' Shackelford said. ``It's an interesting comment on where golf is. We'll see how he does. (But) I still think he needs to know the course.''

Golf's biggest hitters have tended to do OK at Riviera. They just haven't tended to win the Nissan - Woods hasn't won it, and Jack Nicklaus never won it.

It might be good for J.B. Holmes to look over the list of Nissan winners since long-hitter Fred Couples won for the second time in 1992, back in golf's dead-ball era.

Not counting the 1998 Nissan, which was held at Valencia Country Club,the past dozen winners have been grizzled pros (average age: 36 years) with more craft than power (average driving-distance rank: 92).

And that includes Adam Scott, whose Nissan victory last year at age 24, during a season when he had a driving-distance ranking of 23, was accomplished in a tournament trimmed to 36 holes by rain, and thus is not even counted as an official tour win.

Scott is one of the new breed of long-hitters. He is not cocky about it.

``Even though the technology has got us hitting the ball far,'' saidthe Australian who reached the PGA Tour through UNLV, ``these courses are still competitive because they are such a fantastic design and still very challenging.''

Scott is too smart to risk ticking off the Riviera course with a rash comment.

If there's one spot in Riviera's 7,220 yards that figures to trip up an overconfident bomber, it's the 10th hole. The 315-yard, par-4 temptsthe uninitiated with a throaty ''Hi, sailor!''

It's a short poke for one of these long-drivers. After hitting a driver in his practice round, and watching the ball go ``20 yards over'' the green, Holmes plans to hit a 3-wood and aim for the front of the green in the tournament.

The 10th has a narrow green protected by four bunkers in front and one in back. The prudent opening move is a tee shot to the wide-open left side of the fairway.

``But they just can't go left,'' Shackelford said of the mashers with their go-for-the-green mentality. ``They just can't help themselves.''

When the PGA Championship was played at Riviera in 1995, Els teed off with 2- and 3-irons in the first three rounds. On Sunday, pressing to protect a one-stroke lead, he pulled out his driver and went for the green on the 10th. Els wound up in the rough on the left, came away with a par and soon was passed by winner Steve Elkington. He walked away from the third-place finish calling the decision ``a mistake.''

You and I would call it learning the hard way.

J.B. Holmes, second in the PGA Tour's driving-distance stats, is one of seven in the top 10 who are entered in the Nissan Open. Nothing personal against them and their nuclear-powered drivers, I'm just rooting for Riviera this week in the battle of the new and the old.

Go, golf course. You da man.