Early Starter Has Big Finish : Golf: McGovern shoots four-under 67 at Riviera and shares first-round lead with Blake and Beiersdorf.

Jim McGovern’s day began at 4:45 a.m. Thursday when the alarm clock rang. He was at the Riviera Country Club course at 5:30 to get treatment for a sore shoulder.

And a few hours later, the easy-going McGovern, playing in his seventh consecutive tour event, was a co-leader of the Nissan Los Angeles Open.

He shot a four-under-par 67 and shared the lead with Russ Beiersdorf, a graduate of the Hogan (now Nike) tour like himself, and Jay Don Blake.

As for getting up before sunrise, McGovern shrugged and said: “I can sleep on a picket fence. Nothing bothers me.”

The 28-year-old from River Edge, N.J., is definitely laid back and apparently tireless.

McGovern said he played in 34 tour events in 1991 and 33 last year.

“I’ve got nothing better to do,” he said. “I’m a glutton for punishment. I haven’t missed a golf tournament I was eligible for for three years and seven weeks.”

McGovern also said he is a sports junkie, watching everything on television.

“Even tractor pulls,” he said.

“I’m young and stupid and nothing bothers me. My wife comes out now and then, but she’s home now. Someone has to make the money.”

His wife, Lauren, is a lawyer.

While McGovern was scoring his 67 with eight birdies and four bogeys on a clear day in Pacific Palisades, some prominent players were faltering.

Tom Kite, the U.S. Open champion, shot a 73; Davis Love III, who won the Tournament of Champions at La Costa last month, had a 74, a score matched by Mark Calcavecchia, the 1989 L.A. Open winner. Craig Stadler shot a 74 and and Lanny Wadkins a 76.

Fred Couples, the defending champion, shot a 71, and Phil Mickelson, only 22 and a two-time winner on the tour--once as an amateur--had a 70.

Six players had 68s, one shot off the lead--Kelly Gibson, Scott Simpson, Hal Sutton, Ronnie Black, Lee Janzen and Jeff Sluman. “I just like to play,” McGovern said. “I don’t mind playing the pro-ams, I don’t mind playing golf with anyone. I just like people.

“I have a lot of friends out here this week and one of them was drinking a beer for every birdie I made. He’s probably drunk right now.”

McGovern said he grew up in a home near the fourth green of the Hackensack, N.J., Golf Club. He was once a self-styled “hacker from Hackensack.”

He said he has six brothers and two sisters, and all of them play golf. So do his mother and father, but they play left-handed. The siblings are right-handed.

McGovern played football, basketball and baseball in high school and turned to golf after knee surgery from football, three broken ankles in basketball, and another broken ankle in baseball.

One of his brothers, Rob, is a linebacker for the New England Patriots.

McGovern said he played with Couples and Sluman last year in the Doral Open at Miami.

“For nine holes, I couldn’t do anything but watch those two guys and try to stay out of their way,” he said.

“If Couples wasn’t a golfer, he’d probably be a surfer. He’s really laid back.”

So, of course, is McGovern.

Beiersdorf, a rookie, played nine holes at Riviera earlier in the week, getting his first look at the course.

So much for local knowledge. He had five birdies and a bogey.

Blake, playing in the afternoon when the wind was more of a factor, sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for his share of the lead.

He finished fourth last week at Torrey Pines, but he had been struggling previously, missing four cuts.

Blake pointed out that he missed three of the cuts by one shot.

Golf Notes

Tiger Woods, 17, playing in his second L.A. Open, shot a three-over-par 74. He wasn’t low teen-ager, though, as Ted Oh, of Torrance High, shot a 73. Oh is 16. . . . Scott Simpson had a 68. The former USC standout said he changed teachers, from David Ledbetter to Kim Puterbaugh, when his game was floundering last year. “David is a great teacher, but he’s not for everybody,” Simpson said. “I found that his teaching was too technical.”

Simpson was paired with Bill Murray in the recent Pebble Beach tournament and said he enjoyed the antics of the comedian on the course. . . . Sluman, who finished second to Ted Schulz in the 1991 L.A. Open, also had a 68. “I’ve always enjoyed coming to Riviera,” he said. “This is one of those tournaments that you’d like to have your name on the trophy. I think the big hitters will have an advantage this week because the course is playing a lot softer this year.” John Daly shot a 70 Thursday.