GOLF / PGA TOUR AT TORREY PINES : Stewart Beats Weather, Goes Up by Three

Payne Stewart has been on the PGA Tour too long to let a little thing such as inclement weather affect his golf game.

The 13-year tour veteran has not shot the lowest score in either round of the Buick Invitational of California at Torrey Pines, but he holds a three-stroke lead at the halfway mark.

A six-under-par 66 Friday sent Stewart to the top of the leader board with a 36-hole total of 138. Dave Rummells, who shot a 64 on Friday, is three off the pace, and first-round leader Jay Haas is next at 142. Craig Stadler and Duffy Waldorf, an alumnus of Woodland Hills Taft High and UCLA, are in fourth at 143.

A record 90 players, one more than the Greater Milwaukee Open in 1989, made the cut at 151. Last year it took a score of 140 to make it, a score that only Stewart beat this year.

Rummells and Waldorf, who joined the tour in 1986 and 1987, respectively, are looking for their first tournament victories.

Conditions were less than ideal with wind and occasional rain, but they were nothing like they were on Thursday, when Haas was the only player to break par and Stewart--who played the tougher South course--one of four players to match par.

On Friday, 19 golfers broke par, and Stewart breezed through the less challenging North course with nine-hole totals of 32 and 34.

“I don’t really mind the rain,” Stewart said. “You just have to make sure you keep your gloves dry and don’t let your hands slip.

“Regardless of how bad it is, I try to be positive. If you have a negative attitude about the weather, you’re defeating yourself before you tee off. (Thursday) I was talking to my caddie and I said, ‘Isn’t it beautiful out here?’ We just laughed it off.”

Stewart, 36, a graduate of Southern Methodist, ranks sixth on the all-time money list with earnings of $5,462,958. He has won $68,260 this year and says that he is primed to gain his eighth tour victory and first since 1990.

“I’m very excited about the way I’ve been playing,” he said. “I’m hitting the shots I’m visualizing, and I’m putting the ball very well. I changed putters recently and I’ve probably got the ugliest putter on the tour, but it works.

“Actually, I could have been lower than 66 today. Besides my six birdies, I had good chances on putts that didn’t go in.”

Rummells, also playing the North course, bounced back from a first-round 77 for his 64. He had eight birdies and, like Stewart, no bogeys.

“I kept my composure a little better today,” Rummells said. “When I finished (Thursday) I had a sour taste in my mouth, but I was shocked to see how bad the other scores were. Then I felt a lot better about my chances.”

Haas, who won this tournament in 1978, settled for a par 72 on the South course after his 70 on the North course Thursday.

“I was 33 at the turn, but I started leaking oil coming in,” he said. “My putting was terrible toward the end.”

Waldorf followed an opening-round 74 with a 69 on the North course.

Scores

Through 36 holes at Torrey Pines

LEADERS Payne Stewart: 72-66--138 Dave Rummells: 77-64--141 Jay Haas: 70-72--142 Duffy Waldorf: 74-69--143 Craig Stadler: 75-68--143 Len Mattiace: 76-68--144 Hal Sutton: 73-71--144 Phil Mickelson: 75-69--144 OTHERS John Mahaffey: 74-73--147 John Cook: 77-73--150 Steve Pate: 75-76--151 Scott Simpson: 77-74--151 NONQUALIFIERS Tom Purtzer: 80-72--152 John Daly: 79-73--152 Ben Crenshaw: 80-73--153 Andy Bean: 76-78--154 Bobby Wadkins: 82-73--155