SWING KIDS; NISSAN OPEN FEATURES BIG CROP OF YOUNG GUNS.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Daily News Staff Writer

Tiger Woods and David Duval lead the charge. Or David Duval and Tiger Woods, depending on which week you calculate. Add Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard - all five entered in this week's Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club - and you have a fistful of twentysomethings with more combined punch than the PGA Tour has seen since the 1970s.

Nearly a generation ago, Johnny Miller, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Lanny Wadkins and Tom Watson graduated from Qualifying School within four years of each other and went on to greatness.

All won majors - three in their first six years, two others after turning 40 - while combining to produce 117 tour victories, three Ryder Cup coaches, a career money leader, a 47-year-old Masters runner-up and 46- and 48-year-old tour winners.

Their early efforts were overshadowed by the considerable presence of Jack Nicklaus, arguably the greatest golfer of all time and then in his prime. But Watson, Wadkins, Crenshaw, Miller and Kite, the young guns of the '70s, won 50 times while in their 20s, then demonstrated a staying power that has secured their positions among the greats of the game.

How do their 1990s counterparts compare?

``They're so capable,'' Crenshaw said of Woods, Duval, Els, Mickelson and Leonard. ``They really are a strong group.''

To say the current young guns are off to a fast start is almost an understatement.

Duval, 27 and ranked No. 2 in the world, is playing ``the best golf of anybody on the planet the past two years,'' in the opinion of Els.

A record-setting tour money leader in 1998 with $2,591,031, Duval has won nine times in his last 30 starts, punctuating that streak with a tour-record-equaling 59 in the final round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. As did Nicklaus, Duval challenges as often as he wins, finishing second eight times in his four-plus years on tour.

Woods, just 23 and ranked No. 1 in the world, won as a sponsor's exemption in his fifth tour start after turning pro in 1996. He has eight victories already, including a record 12-stroke win in the 1997 Masters. Last week, he set a course-record 62 while winning the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, coming within three lipped-out putts of his own 59.

Els, 29, counts two U.S. Open titles among his six tour victories. Mickelson, also 29, has won 13 times as the longbeard of this group, with eight seasons of tour tenure. Leonard, 26, has four wins, including the British Open and Players Championship, in his six seasons.

That's 40 wins and four majors already, and the peer-group competition of this youthful group could contribute to continued focus.

Crenshaw felt that attitude helped fuel the inner fire during the 1970s, when he, Wadkins and Kite (all playing at Riviera this week), Watson and Miller provided regular performance feedback.

``We had a good group, we really did,'' Crenshaw said. ``We stayed competitive among each other a good while. You knew if you could handle those fellows week to week, you were going to do well.''

Woods, who arrived on tour with the stated intention of winning as often as he could, said last week he doesn't need peer pressure to make him want to perform at his highest level:

``David is playing well, but I'm not working harder because of his success,'' Woods said. ``Nothing has changed in regards to my approach. I'm still intense as always.''

Duval seems less intense than intensely focused, and never more so than during his remarkable round of 59 at the par-72, 6,950-yard Arnold Palmer Private Course in the final round of the Hope last month. Starting the day seven strokes off the lead, he birdied four of his first five holes, finished the front nine at 5-under 31, then birdied six of his first seven holes on the back nine.

Needing to birdie his final two holes to match the tour record set by Al Geiberger in 1977 and tied by Chip Beck in '91, Duval could do no better than par on No. 17. Then he got the record and a one-stroke victory with a dramatic eagle on the 18th after hitting a 5-iron, 218 yards over water to within six feet of the flagstick.

Duval's effort to describe what he had accomplished rivaled his achievement.

``I don't know if it will,'' he said afterward when asked if the reality of a 59 had downed on him. ``You might get some wild hair out there one day when you shoot 63, you know, but to do it - it is just not something, I am sure, I expected to do in my career. Certainly not in tournament golf.''

So it goes with these latest young guns. Duval ties a tour record, Woods breaks a course record and Leonard opens with three straight top-five finishes - all within 14 months of Mickelson's two wins and two runner-up finishes in '98.

Els said Tuesday he just hoped he could stay up with them - this from a man who won his second major two years ago at age 27.

Great golf, to be sure, but let an earlier-generation young gun put it in a fortysomething perspective:

``They're playing well, playing very well,'' said Kite, who finished second in the 1997 Masters at age 47. ``But there are a lot of guys in their 20s playing well. A lot of guys in their 40s, too.

``There are plenty of guys out here to push you - plenty of guys, that's for sure.''

GENERATION NEXT

The tour's rising stars:

Tiger Woods

Age: 23

Tour victories: 8

Most recent: Won 1999 Buick Invitational

Justin Leonard

Age: 26

Tour victories: 4

Most recent: Won 1998 The Players Championship

David Duval

Age: 27

Tour victories: 9

Most recent: Won 1999 Mercedes Championship and 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic

Phil Mickelson

Age: 28

Tour victories: 13

Most recent: Won 1998 Mercedes Championships, 1998 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Ernie Els

Age: 29

Tour victories: 6

1999: Won 1998 Bay Hill Invitational

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Color) David Duval, ranked No. 2 in the world, takes the green Thursday in the Nissan Open.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

(2--Color) Tiger Woods

BOX: GENERATION NEXT (see text)