PGA CHAMPIONSHIP : Stadler Shoots a 64, but Reid Leads After a 67

Arnold Palmer’s field of dreams turned into a battleground of bogeys Friday.

Jack Nicklaus said he didn’t “have a clue” where his shots were going.

Tom Watson and much of the rest of the field had to endure a 1-hour 48-minute suspension of play because of lightning and rain.

A Walrus with a virus shot 64 in the second round of the PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes Golf Club.

Incidentally, a guy called Radar is the leader of this tournament by two strokes.

“I never figured this,” said Mike (Radar) Reid, who has never won a major championship. “But that’s the great thing about sports. The Cubs shouldn’t be in first place in August either. Should they?”

The Walrus’ real name is Craig Stadler. He needed only 24 putts to post the low 18-hole score of the tournament--a round that featured eight birdies and no bogeys. The former USC golfer’s 36-hole total of 135 was nine under par, good for a share of second place with Leonard Thompson.

The straight-driving, soft-talking Reid is the same guy who shared the lead after 18 holes. He shot a 67 Friday.

The low 70 scorers (and ties) will survive the cut. But who those players are won’t be determined until early this morning, after 24 golfers finish their second rounds.

Watson, who has never won this tournament, followed his opening 67 with a 69, completed in near darkness. He is alone at 136, one shot ahead of Andy Bean, Chris Perry, Ed Fiori and Dave Rummells.

“My position is better than it was two months ago,” Watson said. “If you asked me two months ago if I could win the PGA, I would have said, ‘No.’ ”

U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange shot a 68 and found himself tied with Scott Hoch and Welshman Ian Woosnam at six under par, five shots behind Reid.

The assault on par continued. After Thursday’s 49 rounds under par, including 68s by Palmer and Nicklaus, there were 40 more rounds under par Friday.

Palmer dropped back into the pack at two under par with a 74, including a three-putt bogey on the par-five 11th hole and a double bogey two holes later, caused by a two-iron off the tee that burrowed beneath the lip of a greenside bunker. Palmer, 59, who birdied seven holes Thursday, managed but one birdie Friday.

“I hope,” he said wearily, “I’ll be able to get myself up the next two days.”

Nicklaus, 49, birdied the 15th and 18th holes to salvage a par round and remain at four under par. But, he said, “I was all over the golf course.”

Reminded that golfing legend Bobby Jones once said that Nicklaus played a game with which Jones was not familiar, Nicklaus replied, “I’m not familiar with this one either.”

Familiarity has always been a trademark of Stadler, a friendly sort despite his hair-trigger temper on the course.

But he hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since the 1984 Byron Nelson tournament, when he was 30 pounds lighter. And he hasn’t come close to the $446,462 he earned in 1982, when he won four tournaments and wound up as the tour’s leading money winner.

He is 36 now and when asked to describe his 14 years on the tour, he said, “It’s been good, bad and ugly.”

It got particularly ugly last month when he arrived in Scotland for the British Open on a Sunday and “slept until Wednesday.” Doctors determined he had a virus. That was all they could tell him. The best he could do in the tournament was a tie for 13th.

When he returned home, doctors couldn’t diagnose the virus, either. Stadler said he will undergo a battery of allergy tests in two weeks.

But right now, he said, “I feel fine.”

Same for Thompson, a 42-year-old journeyman who broke a tour record two weeks ago at the Buick Open. By winning that tournament, Thompson ended a 12-year drought between victories, the longest in PGA history.

During that period Thompson applied for several other jobs. “But I was so unqualified, no one would have me,” he said. “What else could you do when you’ve been out here 19 years?”

On he struggled well into 1989. In his first 19 tournaments this year Thompson missed 12 cuts and withdrew from another tournament. During that span he earned $17,112.65. The turnaround began at the Western Open two months ago, when he finished tied for 27th. He has been playing steadily better since.

The highlight of his round Friday was the 30-foot putt he made for eagle on the 508-yard fourth hole. If the putt hadn’t gone in the hole, he said, it probably would have rolled off the green.

Reid, who has made 12 birdies in two days, said his plan of attack will remain the same today. “You can’t win the tournament on Saturday,” he said. “I’m just going to try to hit fairways and greens.”

PGA Notes

Pat Rielly, president of the PGA of America, said Friday that tournament officials have no plans to “trick up” or make Kemper Lakes more difficult today and Sunday despite the barrage of low scores. “We’re here to determine the greatest player in the world,” Rielly said. “And we don’t plan to change anything.” The reason for the low scores continued to be the absence of wind and the softness of the rain-tamed greens and fairways. . . . Mike Sullivan birdied six of the first seven holes, including five in a row and finished with a six-under 66, 10 shots better than his opening 76. . . . Lanny Wadkins made the second hole-in-one of the tournament with a four-iron on the 180-yard sixth hole. Thursday, Mark O’Meara holed a seven-iron on the 173-yard third. . . . First-round leader Mike Reid plays a golf ball, the Dunlop HT, that isn’t currently manufactured because of a pending lawsuit. His brother recently sent him 20 dozen HTs. But Reid fears he will have to switch golf balls when his supply runs out. When will that be? Well, Reid, the second-most accurate driver on tour statistically, used one ball during his opening-round 66. Reid missed five fairways Friday. . . . Ian Woosnam, the wee Welshman (5-foot-4), when asked about the improvement in his play since the British Open: “I’ve been practicin’ me puttin’.” Woosnam’s accent is a delight. But his attitude about interviews is different. “It suits me fine not to come to the press room,” he said. “I’d rather have people write about what I do than what I say.” Woosnam insists he does not read newspapers.