1995 / 77th PGA RIVIERA : Will Course Turn Into a Softy? : Golf: Greens are considered the key as the world's best tee off today in the final major of the year.

By THOMAS BONK

Aug. 10, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Prepare to fly the kikuyu at half-staff.

Target practice begins today in the PGA Championship on the soft fairways and soft greens of Riviera Country Club, which may not be capable of giving anybody a hard time.

To hear most everyone talk, it’s almost as if the best golfers in the world are going to be landing their shots on a down comforter or a water bed or something.

“I think the fairways are quite generous and I presume that they’ll try and firm up the greens because they’re soft,” Nick Faldo said. “I don’t know what they can do.”

Maybe get the number of a nice paving contractor? What the players can do is plenty. After this week, they may have to lower par at Riviera.

As long as the kikuyu rough doesn’t get as tall as the eucalyptus trees, Riviera’s greens probably are going to be where all the action is.

Right now, they’re either just fine or the golf equivalent of a catcher’s mitt, depending on who’s talking.

Nick Price, the defending champion, said Riviera’s rebuilt greens are going to spike up and they’re soft, but they’re still a lot better than when he played on them in May.

“In some ways, I’m kind of happy about that because it means if I’m not putting real well, the good putters aren’t going to have the best greens to putt on and it kind of evens things out,” Price said.

Seems fair, all right. On the other hand, British Open champion John Daly doesn’t know anything about the greens, probably because he doesn’t have much time, since he’s standing on most of them after one shot.

Greens, heck, that’s where drives go, isn’t it?

“I have no problems with the greens,” Daly said. “I think they are fine. Hell, I grew up on greens in Arkansas. The tee boxes here are better than the greens I grew up on. So I have no complaints.”

We shall see. In the meantime, everybody should have fun trying to beat Hal Sutton’s 36-hole PGA record for demolishing Riviera in the 1983 PGA. Sutton put up consecutive rounds of 65-66 on his way to a one-shot victory over Jack Nicklaus.

For more, there’s also the 72-hole PGA record score of 269 that Price produced last year at Southern Hills in Tulsa.

This week’s potential Sutton-Price play-alike is Corey Pavin, who has taken to Riviera like a credit card to the merchandise tent.

Pavin is generally regarded as the favorite, principally because he won the the last two L.A. Opens at Riviera and the U.S. Open in June.

Pavin thinks the role of favorite is sort of funny. “I went from the guy who hasn’t won a major to the favorite in majors,” he said. “I just have to go out and play golf.”

It’s probably the best game plan, to be sure. Also playing with the same idea of trying to win the fourth and final major title of the year are such big-timers as Faldo, Greg Norman, Daly, Price, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Masters champion Ben Crenshaw and just about anybody else capable of leaving a spike mark on a green.

It could be a once-in-a-decade or so experience if an American wins. That would mean a U.S. sweep of the majors, which hasn’t happened since 1982 when Craig Stadler won the Masters, Tom Watson won the U.S. Open and the British Open and Raymond Floyd won the PGA.

As the favorite, Pavin prepared for the PGA by taking off his spikes and putting his clubs away for six days, vacationing in San Diego.

Daly had a different manner of preparation, which began in earnest Tuesday night. He was a guest on “The Tonight Show” and shaved a man’s head. Then Daly hit some doughnut holes into the crowd.

“It’s fun to do stuff like that,” he said.

Daly got down to real work during his practice round Wednesday. You know, when you exercise hard, you’ve got to keep your strength up, so Daly had a hot dog, a chocolate doughnut and a half-dozen or so cans of diet cola.

Afterward, Daly was asked the usual glut of golf questions. One of them was about the par-three fourth hole. He was asked how he approached it.

Said Daly: “I just walk from the third green to the fourth tee.”

Chances are the rough isn’t going to be that nice a place for a walk, if you happen to hit your ball in there. The rough could grow as much as an inch and a half by Sunday, but it was cut Tuesday to 3 1/2 inches.

There they go again. Somebody else cutting Riviera down to size. The guys carrying the golf clubs get their chance today.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Facts and Figures

* SITE

Riviera Country Club,

Pacific Palisades

6,949 yards, par 71.

* DATES

Today through Sunday.

* PURSE: $1.75 million.

* WINNER’S SHARE

$310,000.