BRITISH OPEN : Ballesteros Takes Route to 66 : Golf: Spaniard finishes eagle-birdie for a one-shot lead and then the weather turns bad at Royal Birkdale.

The vane atop Royal Birkdale’s weather-beaten clubhouse was spinning like a pinwheel by the time Seve Ballesteros strode across the nearby 18th green to lay claim to the first-round lead of the British Open golf tournament Thursday with a four-under-par 66.

The ball Ballesteros birdie-putted had just crept 40 feet into the cup. He was definitely on a roll, having made a masterful eagle at the 17th hole with a 375-yard drive and a nine-iron that the Spaniard air-mailed four feet from the pin.

His was the round heard ‘round England on a day when the much-dreaded blustery weather relented enough before noon to inspire more than two dozen golfers to equal or better the par of 70 on one of Great Britain’s most challenging courses.

Three players, including Chip Beck, shot 67s, defending champion Nick Faldo was among seven at 68, five-time champion Tom Watson and five others had 69s, and Jack Nicklaus was right there beside Ian Woosnam and Curtis Strange with his 70.

Because the chilly wind blowing in off the Irish Sea had changed direction in mid-round, however, the 18 threesomes that followed the leader did not have similar success. Only two of these 54 golfers in the mist, trouser cuffs flapping like flags, were able to break Birkdale’s par once Ballesteros had signed his card.

By the end of the day, it was a jungle out there. Raymond Floyd staggered to an 80. Sandy Lyle was one shot better. Corey Pavin, playing decently, double-bogeyed the 18th. Phil Mickelson, playing not without good cause like an amateur, double-bogeyed the 15th and 16th.

Some caressed their luck, some cursed it.

Ballesteros, understandably, thought it was a beautiful day at the old hole-yard. He intended only to lag his 40-footer close at the final hole when his caddie suddenly said: “Knock it in the hole. Strange things happen sometimes.”

Said Seve: “I did hole it, so it was a strange thing.”

It was almost as strange as what happened to one of his countrymen, Jose Maria Olazabal, who was minding his own business at the first fairway when a teen-age girl from Yorkshire peeled off her white cotton dress, left it with her mother and streaked naked toward Olazabal, chased by tournament marshals.

The girl was escorted away. Olazabal parred the hole.

Stranger things happened still to make Martin Gates of England and Santiago Luna of Spain, playing in their first British Open, feel comfortable enough to shoot 67s and tie Beck for second place. Gates chipped one in from 30 feet at his very first Open hole and later sank a 40-foot putt at the 16th.

“I’ve had some good tournaments and have been knocking at the door,” said Gates, 26. “I guess the door opens one day.”

As for Luna, 28, who defeated Ballesteros for last year’s Spanish Open championship, his game was superior to his English, but he spoke for unknowns everywhere when asked what he thought of his chances.

“I do not want to think,” Luna said. “I want to play golf.”

The door of opportunity seemed also to be swinging open to another Englishman, Barry Lane, who had never made the cut in this tournament. He was five under par after a dozen holes and found himself the talk of the tournament for a few hours before a late fade to a very acceptable 68.

Then there was countryman Jamie Spence, who was enjoying life at the top of the leader board when he came crashing down at the final hole with a triple-bogey seven.

Spence hadn’t been heard from much since startling everybody at historic St. Andrews in last year’s Open with a second-round 65. He was playing similarly Thursday until his second shot at the 18th got snagged by the back lip of a bunker. He punched it out sideways, then chipped poorly, then putted three times, missing from 18 inches.

Nevertheless, nobodies such as these went home from the first day of the rich golf tournament (prize money approaching $1.5 million) with the knowledge that they had outplayed such prosperous pros as Greg Norman and Johnny Miller, former Open champions both, who shot 74s, and Tom Kite and Craig Stadler, who skied to 77s.

U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart was disappointed with his 72, particularly since: “I felt the golf course was kind of vulnerable today.” Stewart went off in one of the early morning groups and was pleased to encounter relatively mild weather, but putted poorly.

Norman putted worse. His day started badly when his tee shot at No. 2 landed in a bush--he double-bogeyed--and ended just as badly when he three-putted the 18th.

Far more satisfied with their rounds were those in the mob at 68, including Faldo, who said: “We obviously lucked out with the weather.” Joining him and Lane were Gary Hallberg, Mike Reid, Mike Harwood of Australia, stocky Costantino Rocca of Italy and Mark Mouland of Wales, who has never been the same since breaking his left foot and right ankle in a car crash after winning the 1986 Car Care Plan International Open.

Watson, trying to become the only six-time winner besides turn-of-the-century Harry Vardon, rallied after a slow start with a 35-foot putt at the ninth hole on his way to a 69. With him there were Wayne Grady, Graham Marsh, Africans Nick Price and Tony Johnstone and a 23-year-old Englishman, Carl Suneson, also in this tournament for the first time.

Nicklaus, not here for the first time, was three over par after 12 holes before finding his touch. He made an 18-foot birdie putt at the 13th, sank a nine-footer at the 15th and birdied the 525-yard 17th with the help of a nice eight-iron shot that plopped 20 feet from the flag.

“I told you Tuesday that I was playing as badly as I could,” Nicklaus said. “It got a little better yesterday, and today I got better as the round went on. Maybe I could have even been three or four shots lower.”

Ballesteros was four shots lower than Nicklaus principally because he made birdie putts of six, 20, 35 and 40 feet.

“I think I played great,” Ballesteros said. “I put the ball always in the right position from the tee. I think I know how to manage this course, if the wind stays in the same direction.”

British Open Notes

A streaker interrupted the British Open once before, at Royal St. George’s in 1985, when Sandy Lyle was about to putt on the final hole. Peter Jacobsen, playing with Lyle, tackled the guy. . . . A news release described Thursday’s streaker as “a totally unclothed, unnamed, fair-haired and well-built girl from Bradford, Yorkshire, on a day ticket.”

Lee Trevino, buoyed by Wednesday’s hole in one in practice, pleased himself and the crowd of 34,290 with a 71. . . . Mark Calcavecchia, also at 71, had his wife as a caddie. . . . The players ate up the par-five 17th hole with 11 eagles, 106 birdies and three bogeys. Both of Nick Faldo’s playing partners, Wayne Grady and Jay Don Blake, eagled it. Faldo birdied “just to save face,” he said.

A 20-year-old Englishman, Bob Wilshire, whose father carries his bag, recovered from his intimidating practice round Wednesday with Nick Faldo and Hale Irwin, and managed a 74. Nervous about signing up to draw them as partners before a large crowd, Wilshire said: “I thought about it for a moment and then said: ‘Why not?’ So I stuck my name down.” How’d it go? Great, Wilshire said. “You wouldn’t believe the free gear! One good round and everybody wants to be your friend!”