After Peaking at Riviera, Faldo in a Valley

Out here in the Santa Clarita Valley, once famous for its potatoes, sugar beets, watermelons and the estate of silent film cowboy William S. Hart, the Nissan Open has a new home . . . at least for the next four days.

Valencia Country Club is a long way from Pacific Palisades and Riviera Country Club, where the tournament has been staged 36 times and which was the scene of Nick Faldo’s masterful three-shot victory last year.

After a practice round, Faldo was asked how he found Valencia.

“Courtesy car from the airport,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable farms used to dominate the landscape, but beginning today the biggest cash crop in the $2.1-million tournament basically revolves around planting golf balls in the hole and loading up on birdies.

This is sort of a new business at Valencia Country Club, which hosted U.S. Open sectional qualifying twice and U.S. Amateur qualifying last year, but nothing like a PGA Tour event. The Nissan Open wouldn’t have left Riviera this time except that the U.S. Senior Open will be held at Riviera in July and club rules prohibit two pro tournaments in the same year.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., Valencia is 6,967 yards long but is playing longer because it’s so soft from the rain. Justin Leonard, who played his practice round Wednesday in strong gusts, said Valencia might be tougher to crack than the walnuts they used to grow around the place.

“If the wind keeps up, this course is going to play very difficult,” he said.

For Faldo, it has been sort of difficult playing a lot of courses. After his closing 68 at Riviera beat Craig Stadler by three shots, Faldo had only one more top-10 finish the rest of the year.

In the majors, Faldo was nearly a washout. He missed the cut at the Masters, which he had won the year before, tied for 48th at the U.S. Open, tied for 51st at the British Open and missed the cut at the PGA. It was Faldo’s worst year in major tournaments since 1982, when he began playing something besides the British Open.

As for what went wrong in the majors, Faldo offered a quick explanation.

“I played badly, simple as that,” he said. “It was pretty poor. I didn’t play well at all. It was very disappointing.

“That’s the whole point of majors. You find out how solid your game is. You can’t pull the wool over your eyes and say, ‘Oh, I’m playing great.’ That’s how you get tested.”

The problem was his putting, said Faldo, which isn’t that unusual because most players blame their putting when their games go south.

So Faldo did what he usually does when he is troubled with his game. He worked on it, then worked on it some more. He has watched videotapes of his vintage performances from 1989 and 1990, worked with his teacher, David Leadbetter, and altered his putting posture.

What Faldo has done is to keep his shoulders square to the ball and dip his right shoulder slightly.

“You can’t see it, but to me, it feels like six inches, almost,” said Faldo, who believes he is close to being as effective with his putter as he was when he won the 1989 Masters and the Masters and British Open in 1990.

He will be 41 in July during the British Open, and he’s beginning his 11th year playing the PGA Tour full-time, but Faldo is easing into the fray this year. The Nissan Open is only his third PGA Tour event of the year. He tied for 22nd at the Mercedes Championships and tied for 65th last week at Tucson, where he had one round under par.

Beginning this week, Faldo’s schedule picks up. He will play at Doral, Bay Hill and the Players Championship before heading to Augusta National, where he will try for a fourth Masters title.

“My real season is starting now,” he said. “Serious, heavy golf.”

In the meantime, there is the serious, heavy issue of his putting. Faldo said he likes the Valencia course, even though the humps on some of the greens don’t suit him all that well. “One too many dead elephants buried on a couple of the greens,” he said.

There are some other problems with which to contend, namely Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, John Daly, John Cook, Duffy Waldorf, Corey Pavin, Craig Stadler, Scott Simpson, Tom Kite, Steve Jones, Scott McCarron and Fuzzy Zoeller, to name a few.

The vegetable and fruit farmland turned PGA Tour stop probably will find out that the winner is no lemon.