LOS ANGELES OPEN : Life Gets Crowded on the Riviera : Golf: Lietzke and Sluman share lead at 10 under, but 10 others are within four shots.

Bruce Lietzke said that Riviera Country Club gives a player a lot of birdie chances and also takes away a lot of them.

The course was in a generous mood for Lietzke Friday when he shot an eight-under-par 63. It was less forgiving Saturday as Lietzke shot a one-under 70 and is tied for the 54-hole lead with Jeff Sluman at 203, 10 under par

Lietzke and Sluman are one shot ahead of Davis Love III and Ted Schulz. However, it’s anybody’s guess who will win the Nissan Los Angeles Open as eight other players are within four shots of the lead.

“I see guys who are five or six back with a chance to win here,” Lietzke said.

Lietzke had a two-stroke lead at the outset of the third round. And he still had a two-shot lead over defending champion Fred Couples through 13 holes.

Lietzke then bogeyed three of the next four holes, with a birdie mixed in. Sluman, who shot a three-under 68, tied for the lead with a birdie at the 18th hole.

Couples, who was four shots behind Lietzke at the start of the round, was charging early. He was six under for the day until he bogeyed the 13th hole. Then, he got a double bogey at the par-three 16th and a bogey at the par-four 18th. So he had to settle for a 68 and is eight under par.

Lietzke, 39, who plays a restricted tour schedule, wasn’t distressed by his one-under-par round. “I don’t feel any particular weakness in any part of my game,” he said.

He added that he doesn’t plan to take any unnecessary risks in today’s final round.

“Anybody who plays Riviera recklessly can come up bleeding pretty bad,” Lietzke said.

Sluman’s game plan, on the other hand, is to be aggressive.

“If you dink it around and just get pars, you can get murdered,” he said.

Sluman, 33, has had only one victory in an eight-year career, but it was a prestigious one--the 1988 PGA Championship.

He said the key to his round Saturday was patience.

“I didn’t force anything early,” said Sluman, who was one over through nine holes. “My caddie said, ‘Hang in there and chances are, good things will happen.’ We were right.”

The good things began happening for Sluman on the back nine, where he had five birdies and a bogey, closing with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 447-yard 18th hole.

Sluman, who stands 5 foot 7 and weighs 135 pounds, said he has a new driver, almost identical to the one that he used when he won the PGA.

“The key for me is my driver and I’ve been hitting it long and straight,” he said. “I’m not strong enough to dig it out of the rough.”

Sluman said there will be a little pressure on him today, but he plans to enjoy himself.

As for Lietzke, he said he feels challenged to prove that he can still play the game competitively.

“I put pressure on myself the first seven or eight years on tour. That’s when I tried to gauge myself, find out how good I was.

“Golf was then my number one priority, but then my family came along and golf fell down the list.

“But I’m enjoying myself. I’m 39 years old and have never had a job in my life. But I like to challenge myself and see if I can do things that I have never done before.”

Love, two strokes behind, said his round of 69 was “kind of sloppy.”

“I need to have a good solid round tomorrow to get my confidence going,” he said. “I seem to play good and bad in streaks. But I haven’t had four solid rounds without some mistakes.”

Love had four birdies and two bogeys.

Schulz, 31, who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour and had to play on the Asian tour in 1988, matched Love’s 69.

“It was the first time I’ve ever played in the last group, and I was nervous,” said Schulz, who had Lietzke and Love as his partners.

He bogeyed the second hole, got a birdie at the fifth and settled down. He tied Lietzke for the lead with a birdie at the 16th, when he placed his six-iron three feet from the cup.

However, he bogeyed the 18th hole to lose his share of the lead.

As for today’s final round, Schulz said, “Anybody can win. We’ll see what happens. I just hope someone doesn’t run away with it.”

Golf Notes

Rocco Mediate had the low round of the day with a five-under-par 66. He is tied at 205 with Fred Couples, David Frost, and Andrew Magee. . . . Couples said he used the wrong club, a seven-iron, on the par-three 16th hole where he got his double bogey. His tee shot found a bunker. He said he tried to hole out from the bunker and “pulled it right,” adding “I should have settled for a bogey.”

Ted Schulz and Bruce Lietzke each found the bunker in the middle of the par-three sixth green with their tee shots. “The crowd was cheering,” Schulz said. That was probably in anticipation of how the players would manage to come out of the unusual trap. Schulz had the most difficult shot, hitting out of the sand on a slope. However, he got his par and so did Lietzke.