Fehr Has Lead by 2 at La Costa : Golfer, 24, From Seattle Shoots 67; O’Grady Is Second

After two rounds of the MONY Tournament of Champions at La Costa Country Club, most of the players whose names are on the leader board need little introduction.

Among the first six players are four who have won major tournaments, including three who did it last year.

Four strokes behind the leader are British Open champion Greg Norman and PGA champion Bob Tway, who are five under par at 139.

Three strokes behind at 140 are U.S. Open champion Ray Floyd and John Mahaffey, who won the 1978 PGA championship.

Two strokes behind is Mac O’Grady.

And the leader is . . .

Rick Fehr may need an introduction. Only 24, the former Brigham Young All-American from Seattle has been on the PGA Tour for less than two years and has won one tournament, last year’s B.C. Open.

His name is pronounced fair , but his game the last two days has been considerably better than that.

He shot a first-round 68, which he said should have been even lower, and although he said he didn’t play as well Thursday, he had a 67 for a 135 total, nine under par.

Even though the course had a full day to dry after the rains of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and was in better condition than it had been for the first round, it was no stroll through the park for any of the players.

For one thing, the rough was fit only for alligators, and not the kind found on the sweaters of so many gallery members.

That made it essential for players to stay in the fairway, where, for the second day, they could take advantage of preferred lies, enabling them to pick up, clean and replace balls.

When they reached the greens, still soft from the rains, their difficulties started again because of the heel prints left behind by other players. Try reading a green sometime when Andy Bean’s 11 1/2-D is in your line.

That said, the course was far from impossible. Of the 29 players, 21 shot par or better. But no one could say he really beat it.

Two players who did Wednesday with seven-under-par 65s, O’Grady and Mark Calcavecchia, had much different experiences in the second round.

Calcavecchia shot a 75, and O’Grady said his 72 felt like a 75.

“Boy, am I glad to get this round over with,” O’Grady said when he came off the course.

“After yesterday, I told friends that I felt I had just played in a pro-am. I never felt any frustration. Today, it felt like every step was in the Twilight Zone.

“It was really tedious and tormenting. On every hole, I felt like I was having a tooth pulled without Novocaine.”

Norman had a 70 Thursday, while the other players who shot themselves into contention, Mahaffey, Floyd and Tway, had 68s.

Considering those illustrious names are behind Fehr on the leader board, the temptation is to ask him: What’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?

Someone did ask him a form of that question after Thursday’s round.

“You mean, does that scare me?” he said.

“No, it doesn’t bother me. I’ve found my place out here. I can compete. Norman, Floyd, Tway, O’Grady, Mahaffey, they’ve all had better records than I’ve had. They’re the best in the game. But when I’m at my best, I can compete with anybody.”

Fehr was at less than his best Thursday, but he had no bogeys and a lot of luck.

“Today was one of those days when all the right things happened,” he said. “I drove into the trees three times, and all three times I made birdies.

“Yesterday, I felt I turned a 64 into a 68. Today, maybe I turned a 73 into a 67. It was a day when the ball was finding the hole.”

Fehr said he feels more comfortable with the lead in this tournament, in which there are only 28 other players, than he would in a regular tour event. Only the winners of last year’s tournaments qualify for the Tournament of Champions.

“I can’t downplay this field, but any time you’ve got only 29 players, your chances are better,” he said.

“If you have 156 players, it’s much tougher to lead. The tour is in a situation now where there’s not that much difference between the top 30 and the top 150. But the best players in the world are here, so it’s nice to be leading.”

As for who will be leading after today’s third round, it’s anybody’s guess.

“If the course dries out, the big boys will get pretty tough to beat,” O’Grady said, referring to the marquee names, Norman, Floyd, Tway, etc.

“But if it stays like this, it’s unpredictable. Somebody is going to come from five or six back on the last day to win.”

One of the younger seniors, Butch Baird, shot a four-under par 68 Thursday and moved ahead of Don January for the second-round lead in the Senior Tournament of Champions.

January, who had led by three strokes after the first round, shot a par 72 for a 139 total, one stroke behind Baird.

The only other player under par is Gene Littler, who is at 142 after shooting a 72 Thursday.