THE MASTERS : Trevino Still Holds the Lead, but He Has Company in Faldo

The wind howled, the scores soared and Lee Trevino is still in the hunt to win the Masters, the only major championship that has eluded him.

Trevino, who shot a 67 Thursday for the first-round lead, faltered to a 74 Friday but still held a share of the lead with Britain’s Nick Faldo, two strokes ahead of the field.

Faldo, who was paired with Trevino, had a four-stroke edge over the 49-year-old veteran after 10 holes.

But Faldo bogeyed the 11th, 16th and 17th holes, and Trevino got a birdie at No. 12 and then maintained a par pace the rest of the way.

It rained during the night, but the Augusta National course was playable because a persistent, cold wind of about 20 m.p.h. dried the greens somewhat.

The wind was such a factor that only seven players were under par after 36 holes. Trevino and Faldo, who shot a 73, led the way at 141. They were followed by Ken Green, Mike Reid, Seve Ballesteros, Ben Crenshaw and Scott Hoch, all at 143.

Green had the low round of the day, a three-under-par 69. In fact, he was the only player who shot lower than 7l.

“The wind was blowing pretty good, but the rain helped a lot to soften up the greens,” Trevino said. “It didn’t dry them out completely. I was just trying to figure out which way the wind was blowing.

“I knew it was going to be a tough day. I figured that par (for the field) would be about 75, and if I shot a 75, or 76, I’d be OK.”

The closest Trevino has come to winning the Masters, a tournament that has frustrated him for 20 years, was a share of the lead in 1978 after 36 holes.

He figures that if it keeps raining, he has a good shot at winning because the greens will hold his lower trajectory shots.

Then, he smiled and said, “But from what I hear, the weather is clear from here to Hawaii.”

Trevino said that more wind, without rain, won’t help him because the greens will get on the hard side.

“I just stuck in there,” said Trevino, who bogeyed two of the first three holes and had a birdie on the other. “I’m looking forward to the senior tour and the rest of this year and I want to gear up now.”

Trevino finished in a tie for 61st last week in a tournament at Houston. It was his first tour event in six months. In the last eight years, he has been only a part-time player because of television commitments and back problems.

“If you had seen me play last week, you would have thought that I was in the fifth flight of the club championship,” he said.

Faldo, who had a 68 Thursday, had three birdies through the first 10 holes, but came back to Trevino with his bogeys.

“Nick was playing extremely well, and I thought he was going to run away and hide,” Trevino said. “I figured, though, that when I got that birdie at 12, I’d pick up a couple of shots on somebody.”

Faldo, who is as terse in his comments as Trevino is loquacious, seemingly wasn’t disturbed about blowing what could have been a sizable lead, considering the conditions.

“I’m pleased to be right there now, and that’s the object of the exercise,” Faldo said. “Things went well until I messed up at the end.”

Asked to evaluate the talkative Trevino as a playing partner, Faldo said sharply: “He was rooting me on. I usually count the number of strokes, not the number of times his mouth is open.”

Ballesteros, a two-time winner of the Masters, had reason to be upset. He was four under par for the tournament after 14 holes, but he got a quadruple bogey on the 15th hole and a triple bogey at No. 17.

However, he seemed unruffled about his miscues later in the interview room.

“I had a 25-foot putt at the 15th and it didn’t break and went past the cup three feet,” he said. “Then, the ball didn’t go into the hole two times.

“What happened at 15 was an accident. I’ve been putting very well. Under the conditions a 72 is still a good round.”

Ballesteros said that he hopes the weather remains the same, with a capricious wind puzzling the players.

“I just have a good feeling about it,” he said.

When asked if the wind would affect the other players more than him, the Spaniard said, “I hope so.”

There are other players very much in contention after the top seven.

Tom Kite, who had a 72, is at even par with 144. Curtis Strange, Mark O’Meara and Tom Watson are grouped at 145. Jack Nicklaus, a six-time winner of the Masters, shot a 74 and is six strokes behind the leaders.

The cut was at 151 and such notable players as defending champion Sandy Lyle and 1982 Masters titlist Craig Stadler didn’t make it. Lyle had a 76 Friday, and Stadler soared to a 79.

The weather was the major topic of conversation:

Said Kite: “It was really, really difficult out there. The greens are really fast. The wind is rocking you. The only saving grace is the greens are still holding because of the rain.”

Said Crenshaw, who shot a 72: “A 72 today is like a 68, or 67 on a normal day.”

When someone told Crenshaw that Strange’s round of 71 had not included a bogey, he exclaimed, “That’s off the charts.”

Said Reid: “It’s like the Navy slogan, ‘It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure.’ ”

Said Strange: “It was tougher out there, much tougher than yesterday, windier and colder.”

Said Green: “It’s about a two-club wind and the way I had been playing, any club I pulled out of the bag was a gamble.”

Green’s best finish in 10 previous tournaments was a tie for 17th in the A & T Pebble Beach Pro-am.

Although it was a grim day for most, Trevino managed to have some fun and entertain the gallery. On the 12th hole, he pulled about four balls from the edge of Rae’s Creek.

“They looked like Easter eggs,” he said. “I’ve never left a golf ball on the edge of the water. Wouldn’t you pick up a dollar bill if you saw it? And golf balls cost more.”

Golf Notes

Ken Green is regarded as the maverick of the tour, even though he says that sometimes people misunderstand him. In any event, he speaks his mind. Green irritated Masters officials here in 1986 when he criticized the greens and said that the traditional entrance to the course for the pros, Magnolia Lane, was “just another street with trees on it.” Green, who shot a 69 Friday, said that he had never heard anybody complain about Augusta National previously and, when he first came here, he was shocked. “It’s a beautiful course, but the greens then were so fast you had a better chance on I-20 (a nearby freeway).” He is not complaining this year, but he said that a win at Hartford, or Westchester, both Eastern courses, would mean more to him than a victory here because he would be playing in front of his friends.

Green probably holds the tour record for throwing his putter the most times in a year. He estimated that he chucked it eight times in 1988, either into lakes, or the Pacific Ocean. “I have no sentimental attachment to a putter,” he said. “When it’s good to me, fine, but when it’s bad, it has to die.”

With Sandy Lyle not making the cut, he became the fourth defending Masters champion to bow out after 36 holes. It happened to Jack Nicklaus in 1967, Tommy Aaron in 1974 and Seve Ballesteros twice, in 1981 and again in 1984. . . . Arnold Palmer, a four-time Masters champion, shot 81-80 for the 36 holes. . . . Eric Meeks, the U.S. Amateur champion from Walnut, missed the cut at 162 (83-79).