THE LOS ANGELES OPEN : Lyle, Calcavecchia Beat the Rain : Early Starters Tied at 134, Lead Finishers by 3 Shots

Riviera is regarded as a grand old golf course that has commanded respect from such giants of the game as Ben Hogan and Sam Snead.

Opened for play in 1927, Riviera has the traditional values that golfers revere.

Mark Calcavecchia, though, likes Riviera for other reasons.

“It’s a great course, but it can be had,” he said Friday after shooting a 66 in the rain-shortened second round of the Nissan Los Angeles Open.

His round left him sharing the 36-hole lead with Sandy Lyle, who also had a 66. At 134, 8 under par, they have a 3-stroke lead on the field.

Even on a day when play was suspended at 2:12 p.m. and eventually called off at 4 when a persistent, light rain made conditions unplayable, Calcavecchia and Lyle were unaffected.

They teed off in the morning and encountered some rain, but not as much as the players who followed them.

The 71 players who were on the course in the afternoon couldn’t finish, and the last group still had 12 holes to play.

Mike Shea, the PGA Tour tournament director, said that the second round would be completed this morning, weather permitting, starting at 7:15.

The second round will take 2 1/2 to 3 hours to complete and the cut will be determined. Then new pairings will be made at 11 a.m. for the third round.

Shea said, however, that the forecast is shaky for today with a 50% chance of rain.

As for Calcavecchia, he was singing in the rain.

“It wasn’t that bad. It was only a a light rain,” Calcavecchia said. “It didn’t bother me.”

Obviously. Calcavecchia, 28, a long-hitting pro from West Palm Beach, Fla., had 5 birdies in his round and no bogeys.

He has a total of 11 birdies for his 2 rounds and predicted that if he continues on that pace, he will be in a very favorable position.

“If I make 4 or 5 birdies each of the next 2 days, I’ll be pretty tough to beat,” he said, matter of factly.

Lyle, a Scot who lives in Surrey, England, was playing Riviera for the first time. “I like the course a lot,” he said. “But it’s not a do-or-die situation, like some of the TPC courses over water. You can scramble here. I used every club in the bag today.”

His round got off to a rousing start when he chipped in from 30 yards for an eagle on the par-5, 501-yard first hole.

So he immediately went from 3 to 5 under par. Then, he went on to record 5 birdies along with 2 bogeys.

Calcavecchia said that he hasn’t been driving to his liking lately but that he is hitting a lot of good irons and putting accurately. Two of his birdie putts were from 15 and 20 feet.

“There are quite a few birdie holes here, but it’s not that hard of a driving course,” Calcavecchia said.

Calcavecchia began a birdie spree Thursday, after feeling dizzy on the 10th and 11th holes.

“It might have been sugar withdrawal,” he said. “I had a Coke on the 12th hole and then felt great.”

So he said he then birdied the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th holes.

“The course played good today,” Calcavecchia said. “You could skate around her easier than yesterday, when it was windy.”

Calcavecchia is an emerging star of the tour. He finished second in the Masters last year and was sixth on the money-winning list, earning $751,912.

He has already won a Tour event this season, the Phoenix Open, but was disappointed at not having won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic after carrying 2-stroke lead into the final round.

“I didn’t feel as bad as Paul Azinger (who lost in a playoff), but I was tremendously disappointed,” Calcavecchia said. “I was playing as good as I can play and had a great feeling that I would win, but I blew it.”

Not by much, though, as he finished a stroke away from making the playoff with Azinger, Lyle and Steve Jones, who won.

Lyle won 3 Tour events last year including the Masters. He entered 17 tournaments and finished seventh on the money list, earning $726,934.

He said that Seve Ballesteros’ success on the Tour, along with his own and that of some other foreigners, has encouraged European players to take the game more seriously, thereby challenging American golfers.

Lyle said that his style is similar to Calcavecchia’s in that they are both aggressive and hit the ball long and high.

They were involved in a shoot-out last year at the Masters. Lyle had to make a historic birdie on the 18th hole to beat Calcavecchia by a stroke.

Lyle hit what is regarded as one of the great 5-iron shots of all time out of a fairway bunker to within 10 feet of the hole. Then, he sank his putt for a birdie.

Asked his reaction to another possible match-play encounter with Calcavecchia here, Lyle said:

“The tougher it gets the better I like it.”

They’re the front-runners now, with Hale Irwin, Mike Reid, Gene Sauers and Tom Purtzer grouped at 137, 5 under par. Craig Stadler, who shot a 67, is alone at 138.

Golf Notes

Mark Calcavecchia commenting on Hale Irwin’s being hit by a golf ball in Wednesday’s pro-am: “I’ve had some close calls in the past in pro-ams. It’s a dangerous place out there. I give spectators credit for standing out there. You couldn’t nail me to the ground out there in some of those places. I’m surprised more people don’t get killed out there.”

Chip Beck, the defending L.A. Open champion, was among the players on the course whose round was suspended by the rain. . . . Naboro Watanabe, who owns 49% of the Riviera Country Club, has indicated that the club is responsive to serving as host of the tournament here beyond 1990 if it’s agreeable to the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce. An agreement has already been reached for 1990.