San Diego Open : A Little Break Is Helpful to Pooley

How appropriate that this week’s PGA Tour event is sponsored by a brokerage firm. Because the numbers on the scoreboard after the first two rounds of the Shearson Lehman Hutton Andy Williams Open are the kind that bring back fond memories of those heady days of the runaway bull market.

That was a time when a look at the big board brought a smile to most every face on Wall Street. It’s that same kind of giddy feeling that is running strong among the golfers this weekend at Torrey Pines Golf Course.

The scores are low, the optimism is high and competition is as close as it can get.

Don Pooley heads the field with a 12-under-par 132 after he shot a 7-under-par 65 on the North Course Friday. But the lead is far from secure.

Twelve players are within two shots of Pooley. Twelve more are within four shots, including Gil Morgan, who is at 136 after he shot a 62 Friday to tie the tournament record on the North Course.

The abundance of low scores and the good condition of the course has the leaders running scared.

“I know, if I don’t keep making a lot of birdies,” Pooley said, “people are going to catch me.”

Closest in pursuit are Tom Kite and Bob Tway at 11-under par 133. Kite shot a 65 on the North Course. Tway shot a 65 to match Tom Watson for the lowest round on the South Course after two rounds.

Watson, who shot a 69 on the North Course Friday, is among 10 players tied at 10-under 134. Also in that group is first-round leader Fred Couples, who shot a 71 on the South Course; 1984 champion Gary Koch, who shot a 68 on the South Course, and 1983 PGA champion Hal Sutton, who had a 68 on the North Course.

Sutton, who has missed the cut in two of his three previous tournaments, had a simple strategy for playing the final two rounds.

“I’m just going to try and birdie as many as I have so far,” he said. Which, of course, is the object of the game. But this week there is special urgency. It took a three-under-par 141 just to make the cut.

“When the tournament gets backed up like this, you have to play a little more aggressive,” Couples said. “A 71 doesn’t do you a lot of good.”

The low scores, however, could start to moderate over the weekend as the final two rounds will be played exclusively on the South Course. In the first two days, the players alternated rounds between the South and the shorter and easier North Course.

“The South Course is two or three shots harder than North,” Pooley said. “But the South Course is playing very fast. It’s not playing as difficult as in the past. You’re getting a lot of roll off of the tee. I really enjoy that because I can run the ball out with those big hitters.”

Torrey Pines traditionally has been good to Pooley. Although he finished in a tie for 23rd in last year’s Andy Williams Open, he placed no lower than a tie for 10th the previous four years and missed by one shot making the playoff for the 1984 championship won by Koch.

Pooley, 36, is coming off his best season in 12 years on the PGA Tour. He finished 18th on the money list with $450,005 and won his second career tournament at Memorial. But he has struggled in the early going this year.

He has missed the cut twice this year. His best finish was a tie for 19th in the MONY Tournament of Champions at La Costa Country Club to open the season.

“It has been my all around game, not any one thing that I’m not happy with,” Pooley said. “Off the tee, I’ve been hitting it short and not very solid. The irons weren’t consistent, and my putting was very inconsistent. And that adds up to not very good scores.”

So Pooley decided to do what he normally does when his game has fallen off--take a break from golf. After he missed the cut at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am two weeks ago, he returned home to Tucson. Except for a clinic on the short game, he did not pick up a club again until Monday.

“I’m very much against playing until I don’t have it anymore because then it takes a month to get it back,” Pooley said. “I take one week off. I haven’t lost a thing, and I’m mentally fresh. That’s better than playing until I’m burned out.

“I needed a break mentally more than physically--to clear all that garbage that you worked into your swing and into your head. It’s not unusual for me.”

Tournament Notes Defending champion George Burns was among three players who ran afoul of the seldom-violated rule of hitting the wrong ball. The penalty cost Burns, Mac O’Grady and Peter Jacobson two strokes each.

Burns and O’Grady mistakenly hit each others ball on the fourth hole of the South Course. Burns took a double-bogey six on the hole, and O’Grady made a seven. Burns finished with a 69 that gave him a two-round total of 137. O’Grady shot a 68 but missed the cut by three strokes at 144. The penalty caused Jacobsen to miss the cut by one stroke. He shot a par-72 on the North Course to finish with a 142.