Floyd, Going for the Cycle, Hits With a 64 : British Open: In only major he hasn’t won, the 49-year-old American ties Pate at Muirfield. Woosnam shoots 65, Faldo 66.

Raymond Floyd took a significant step Thursday toward becoming a legendary figure in golf. He shot a 64, seven under par, in the opening round of the 121st British Open at the Muirfield course and shared the lead with Steve Pate.

If Floyd, 49, goes on to win, he will join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to have won all four majors: the U.S. and British opens, Masters and PGA Championship.

Asked about his chances, Floyd said: “I don’t look at it like that. I just want to win the British Open, the one major I haven’t won. But that would be fabulous company to be part of.”

On a relatively calm, overcast day, scores were generally low on the historic course near the Firth of Forth.

Ian Woosnam of Wales and Gordon Brand Jr. of Scotland shot 65s, and Nick Faldo of England had a 66, along with Lee Janzen and John Cook of the United States and Ernie Els of South Africa.

The 64s by Floyd and Pate were one stroke off the Open record, shared by four players.

“To go out and hit 17 greens and put the ball on a par-five in two is about as good a golf as I can play,” Floyd said.

Even though he is pleased with his best opening round in the 17 British Opens he has played, he had a word of caution:

“I’ve always said that you can’t win a tournament in any one round except the last, but you can lose it in any of the four rounds.”

Nonetheless, Floyd said he is playing the best golf of his career.

“Age to me is a number,” he said. “I enjoy what I’m doing and that’s No. 1. I enjoy being competitive, and I’m fortunate my health has allowed that.

“The key is suppleness. I have worked hard to keep my flexibility and that’s why I haven’t lost my length.”

Floyd had eight birdies and a bogey in his round and barely missed an eagle on the par-five fifth hole when his 40-foot putt slid by the cup.

As for 31-year-old Pate, a former UCLA player, there was no indication that he would charge to the top of the leader board.

He won at Torrey Pines in February and tied for sixth at the Masters in April.

Since then, however, his play has been undistinguished. He shot an opening-round 68 in the U.S. Open last month at Pebble Beach, then followed it with an 80, missing the cut.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Pate has received a letter from the PGA Tour, indicating that he will be fined for smashing a water cooler during his nightmarish round of 80 at Pebble Beach.

“The facts aren’t quite true,” Pate said, adding that he didn’t take his wrath out on a water cooler.

Asked to provide details of the incident, he was vague:

“I didn’t touch it (the water cooler) with a club and that’s where the problem lies.”

Pate is nicknamed “the Volcano” on the tour for his temper eruptions, which he says are infrequent now.

He had seven birdies on the par-71 course, relying on an accurate putter.

“I never three-putted, and every time I hit it close to the hole I made it,” Pate said. “I haven’t played well since the Masters. But it’s amazing what happens when you start putting good.”

Even though he missed the cut at the U.S. Open, Pate said he was putting well there.

“But there wasn’t any grass on the greens at Pebble. You could hit good putt after good putt and not make anything because the greens were dead,” he said. “Out here, you keep hitting good putts and they’ll go in eventually.”

Pate said he’s “pretty good’ at two-putting. And, without the restrictive rough of the U.S. Open near the greens, he benefited Thursday.

For example, his approach shot on the par-four 18th hole was 10 yards short of the green. Instead of chipping, he putted from the fairway to within 10 feet of the cup and made his par-saving putt.

Floyd was asked if the British Open was the most important of the four major events.

“I think so,” he said. “In the world of golf this is the Open championship. We in the United States have our Open and everyone in the U.S. considers it the Open, but we in golf know the Open is this one--the golf Open of the world.”

Floyd has had other opportunities to win the British Open in a pro career that began in 1963. His best finish was a tie for second in 1978 at St. Andrews, behind Jack Nicklaus

Given the way he is playing now, Floyd was asked if he plans to delay joining the senior tour when he turns 50 on Sept. 4.

“I don’t have a clue what I’m going to do after September,” he said.

After losing the Masters to Faldo in a playoff in 1990, Floyd said that it was probably his last chance to win a major because he was 47.

That setback still haunts him.

“They wrote that Nick Faldo won the Masters in 1990,” he said. “He didn’t win it. Ray Floyd gave it to him. That’s the way I feel about it.”

Floyd said he actually lost the Masters on the 71st hole--not the playoff--when he made a tactical error with an approach shot to the green.

“I should have played the hole for a birdie, and Faldo couldn’t have beaten me,” he said.

“That was the most difficult loss that I’ve ever faced, and there won’t be another one that will affect me like that.”

He has an opportunity, though, to atone for it.

British Open Notes

Ian Baker-Finch, the defending champion, shot a 71. Tom Kite, the U.S. Open champion, had a 70, a score that was matched by Fred Couples, the Masters champion. . . . Kite on Raymond Floyd: “He can compete at this level as long as he wants. No one is willing to pay the price when they are 50 years old. It is more difficult to want it when you are 40, or more. It’s difficult to retain a burning desire.” Kite is 42. . . . Corey Pavin and Duffy Waldorf, prominent former UCLA players, each shot a 69. Mitch Voges, the U.S. Amateur champion from Simi Valley, shot a 71. Jack Nicklaus had a 75 and Tom Watson a 73.

Orrin Vincent III, who was listed as a 500-1 shot by the bookies here, had a 67. The former Pacific 10 champion from the University of Washington recently had a 14 on the first hole of the Austrian Open. Vincent, 23, who went to Palm Springs High and represents a club in Las Vegas, is playing the European tour.

John Daly had a 74. “Obviously I’m disappointed,” he said. “If the winds blow at 40 m.p.h. when I tee off tomorrow afternoon, I might as well pack it in.” . . . Nick Faldo had a 67 in the first round in 1990 when he won the British Open. “Playing in these conditions (minimal wind), you have to be aggressive,” he said. “Sixty-six (his score) is a good-looking number.”

Floyd: “This was links golf at its purest. Unfortunately, on U.S. so-called links courses, such as Pebble Beach, scoring went up. You can’t put high rough in front of the green (here), as they did at Pebble. And there is no way to play it when it gets windy. I hope it stays this way.”