Valencia Country Club

Nick Price joined the Champions Tour a year ago with a standout record on the PGA Tour -- and a crisis of confidence. Despite winning 18 tournaments in his career, including the British Open and the PGA Championship twice, the South African's skills had abandoned him when he turned 50 and joined the senior circuit. But now Price is rebounding, and he fired a six-under-par 66 on a blustery day to take the first-round lead Friday in the AT&T Champions Classic at Valencia Country Club.

He has a great golf name, a great golf grandfather and a great golf swing, but there's one thing Tommy Armour III doesn't have. That would be a great golf victory. Oh, let's not be picky now. Any kind would do just fine for Armour, whose only PGA Tour win came in the Phoenix Open in 1990 when he was so young he was known as Tommy Armour II 1/2.

With the big boys of the PGA Tour descending upon his golf course, groundskeeper Wayne Mills must walk a tightrope. On one hand, Mills is giving Valencia Country Club a few more teeth, letting the rough grow long enough to gobble errant drives and cutting the greens short and fast. On the other hand, he doesn't dare make the course play too tough. "That's what the players call 'trickin' it up,' " Mills said. "They don't like that." Thus the delicate balance.

If Tiger Woods and Fred Couples commit to the Nissan Open today, as expected, maybe the snickering will finally die down. Maybe. Skepticism abounded when the Valencia Country Club was chosen as a one-time substitute for the tournament. Riviera, the usual course, will be the site of the U.S. Senior Open in July but wasn't interested in hosting two tour events so close together. Defending champion Nick Faldo actually laughed.

Driving up the Golden State Freeway on the way to Valencia Country Club for the Nissan Open, Tiger Woods and his fellow PGA Tour members will be surrounded by rolling hills the color of money. "Everything is so pretty because of the rain," Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) said in a rare rebuke to El Nino naysayers. The PGA Tour's stop in Valencia is being treated like a presidential visit--streets swept, windows polished and welcome signs posted.

When Newhall Land & Farming Co. sold Valencia Country Club in 1985, it planned to have another public golf course for the Santa Clarita Valley within a few years. Two lawsuits, one redesign and 15 years later, work has begun on a Tournament Players Course that will be part of the Westridge homes community. "We've started phase one grading," said Marlee Lauffer, vice president of corporate communications for Newhall Land & Farming.

Al D'Amato calls himself a late bloomer. He has attempted to qualify for the U.S. Amateur golf championship so many times he lost count. He wondered if he should continue trying. But he gave it one last shot last month at Valencia Country Club and, after 36 holes in one day, the 57-year-old Simi Valley resident qualified. "At my age, 36 holes is a killer," D'Amato said. "This was going to be the last time, I swear to God.

Regis Malone and his golf buddies have a regular 9:30 a.m. foursome every weekend on the lush fairways at Valencia Country Club. This week when Malone shows up at the club, instead of playing partners Corky Knight, Bob Manley and Jim Larocca, he'll find the course has been taken over by Tiger Woods, Fred Couples and John Daly in the PGA Tour's Nissan Open. "Even though we can't play the course for 10 or 12 days, I'm excited about those guys coming here to play," Malone said.

The PGA Tour might be coming back to Valencia. Dan Hernandez, head pro at Valencia Country Club, has been negotiating to land the SBC Senior Classic for 2001. "I'm working on it," Hernandez said. "I've been talking to them, but we don't have a contract. "I heard they were looking for another venue so I went on a little fishing trip. I got on the phone and called them, but I'm sure they would have found their way up here on their own."