L.A. OPEN : Long Shots Are the Key for Longshot Co-Leaders : Golf: Mayfair’s chip, Mudd’s putts make all the difference. Daly is in a group that trails by one stroke.

And now, direct from the Nissan L.A. Open, here are the two latest installments in how to lead a golf tournament:

--Billy Mayfair, who wed his wife on a golf course, nearly divorced his six-iron when it put him 20 feet from the hole on No. 6, but chipped in from there for a birdie.

“That’s kind of when you know the day is going your way,” Mayfair said.

--Jodie Mudd, using a putter he had found last week in a friend’s garage at Marina del Rey, made birdie putts of 40 and 60 feet.

“The shaft is crooked in two places,” Mudd said. “It looks like a fly rod. I love it.”

And so it went Thursday at Riviera, where Mayfair and Mudd each shot a five-under-par 66 in the gathering fog of the afternoon and shared a one-shot lead.

Next at 67 is a group of seven: John Daly, Lanny Wadkins, Corey Pavin, Craig Stadler, Brad Faxon, Brian Kamm and Jim Furyk.

Mayfair has made one cut in six previous trips to Riviera, but things may be turning his way. The holed chip shot on No. 6 was his first of the year.

“I could have used it at Phoenix,” said Mayfair, who lost to Vijay Singh in a playoff there last month.

Mudd found the putter in the garage of his host for the week, Irv Bush. Presumably, Goodwill was closed. The putter is just like the one Mudd played with in college at Georgia Southern 15 years ago.

Besides shining it up and changing the grip, there was only one thing Mud had to do to get it ready to play.

“Shake the cobwebs off it,” he said.

Daly’s round was curious in that he failed to birdie any of the three par-five holes. He said the last time that happened was, well, maybe never.

“I can’t remember the last time,” Daly said.

Of course, his gallery is going to remember how he drove the 311-yard 10th, his first hole, then made the eagle putt from 15 feet.

Daly also played the 418-yard 18th with a flourish. He reached the green with a two-iron and a seven-iron, then gently rolled in a four-footer for a birdie.

He also made a 50-foot birdie putt from off the green at No. 2 and a four-footer at No. 3, which he said made up for not scoring better on the par fives.

“I made some putts today that I don’t make, that nobody makes,” he said. “If I had made birdies on the par fives, my (score) could have been lower, but I’m happy with the way it turned out.”

So was Pavin, the defending champion, who has been trying to get himself straightened out.

He could have been swinging a croquet mallet as well as he has used his putter so far this year, but he made the turn at one under and then birdied the next two holes with putts of 10 and six feet.

He saved his round at No. 13 with an adventuresome par that needed only a guide and a boat to make a nice ride at Disneyland.

Pavin drove into the trees, knocked a three-wood into a bunker, hit a 40-yard bunker shot to 30 feet from the hole and rolled it all the way in.

“I made some good putts, key putts that kept me in a good mood,” he said.

Faxon’s mood might have been better if he had avoided the rough on No. 9, his finishing hole. A lot of rain has made the Riviera rough so tall, you could lose your caddie in there.

Faxon came away with a bogey and a word of caution about the importance of staying on that fairway.

“There’s a lot of grass out there,” he said.

Out there in the tall grass are a lot of players close to the lead. Eight shot 68s, among them Steve Pate, Steve Elkington, Bob Estes Jim Carter and Donnie Hammond.

Peter Jacobsen is lodged at 69 in a group of 14 that includes Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Hale Irwin and Mike Reid.

A total of 70 golfers shot at least par on the 6,946-yard layout hung heavy with the pungent scent of eucalyptus.

Wadkins knows how to play Riviera, has known it for a long time. He has won the tournament twice, the first time in 1979 when he was 29.

One day after saying his game belonged in a ditch or something, he rescued it and said Riviera had a lot to do with it.

“I’m obviously comfortable here,” said Wadkins, who won his last tournament in 1992, but has 21 tour victories, more than any other active tour player except Tom Watson, who has 32.

“I don’t have the shakes or anything,” he said. “When I see guys like Raymond (Floyd) and Hale (Irwin) win at their age, there’s no reason why I can’t win.”

In fact, to prepare himself for such an occasion, Wadkins recently watched videotapes of his swing from some of his better moments.

One of the tapes Wadkins watched was from a tournament in January of 1985. It was the L.A. Open, the last time Wadkins won it.

* SEEING DOUBLE

Hale Irwin, who turns 50 in June, could have a chance of winning tournaments on both the regular and senior tours in the same season. C5