the 20th Belmont Invitational after yesterday's opening round of four-under-par 66 gave him a three-stroke lead over visitor Bob Mucha.

It was a good day for Bermuda players with five of the top eight scores turned in by locals as Dwayne Pearman shares third place with visitor Steve Napoli with their even-par 70 while Kim Swan, Cornell Bean and J.J. Madeiros are all a further stroke behind on 71 along with Gene Peterson.

Mocklow said he would dearly love to go all the way and land his first major trophy in Bermuda -- and do away with a long time label in the process.

"People still confuse me with that 15-year-old overweight little kid with a bad attitude,'' Mocklow, 27, explained yesterday.

But what they will find now is a family man who is full of confidence, thanks to time spent with a golf psychologist in Florida.

"Things are paying off for me,'' said Mocklow who plays out of Old South Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and is on the Coastal Carolina Golf Mini Tour. "I've been giving up a lot of things that people look forward to on the weekend and have been spending a lot of time working on my game.

"I wanted to go away and take some licks for a while,'' said Mocklow, who has been a professional since just after the 1989 Eisenhower World Team Championships.'' Mocklow is not taking his three-stroke lead for granted, knowing that with 54 holes remaining anything can happen. "It's a 72-hole tournament and I'm going to take one hole at a time,'' he said. "There's no question that winning at home is sweeter than anything else. I'm just going to try to keep myself on the cool side.'' Not since amateur Scott Mayne in 1986 has a local player won Belmont, which has become a tournament dominated by overseas players in the past few years.

But this year with the absence of four defending champions -- including last year's winner Tim Conley, Dana Quigley, Ian Doig and Mayne -- it looks to be anybody's tournament with the locals prominent amongst the leaders.

Madeiros is leading amongst the senior professionals with his 71 while John Scheffler is second on 73 and regular visitor Joe Carr third on 74.

Another local, Noel Van Putten, is leading the senior amateurs with his 73, which is six strokes better than Howard DeSilva's 79. "I'm quite happy with that because it was rather windy when we started out earlier,'' said Van Putten.

"The course is in fairly good shape and I'm surprised there weren't more low scores. If I can stay around 73 every day I will be happy.'' Denton Outerbridge and Tim Carr are joint leaders in the amateur category with 73s while another local, Max Atherden, has a 74 and former champion Hav Trott, a Bermudian who now resides in England, has a 75, one stroke better than Glen Simmons.

Mocklow tees off at 12.12 p.m. today from the 10th hole while Mucha leaves at 7.56 a.m. from the first hole and Napoli at 9.16 a.m., also from the first.

ANTHONY MOCKLOW -- Opening round of 66.