It Doesn’t Rain on Huston’s Parade : Golf: Florida golfer, trying for his first victory outside his home state, shoots a 68 and leads by four strokes at La Costa.

Yes, it was a great day for golf Saturday at La Costa, especially if you like water sports.

This presented the golfers with the problem of how to get ready to play the Mercedes Championships in the rain.

Maybe the best way was to take a few practice swings in the shower. Either that or do what John Huston did to handle the rain in the third round.

He resorted to name-calling.

“It was a nagging rain,” Huston said.

Take that, precipitation. Going into today’s final round, Huston holds a four-shot lead over Fred Couples, who threw a 68 on the board Saturday, and Craig Stadler, who threw a club, then kicked it for good measure.

That was on the 17th hole after he hit a wedge shot only 40 feet and covered himself and his caddie with mud from the flying divot.

Said Stadler: “I totaled myself.”

Barring a collapse, or perhaps dry weather, it’s Huston’s tournament to win. It would be a nice story, actually, because it would enable him to correct a geographical quirk on his record.

Huston, from Palm Harbor, Fla., has three victories, all in Florida tournaments, meaning he is 0 for the rest of the world.

On Saturday, about the only thing that irritated Huston was having to deal with changing clothes from wet to dry on the course.

“Well, you have so much clothes on, you try to switch back and forth, try to keep your gloves dry,” he said.

You know how bothersome that is.

All in all, it was an uneventful round for Huston, whose par 72 increased his lead from two shots after two rounds to four after 54 holes.

Huston is happy with his score of 205.

“I didn’t play well, but I improved my position,” he said. “That’s kind of a bonus.”

Couples will be paired with Huston in the final twosome. The last time they were supposed to play in the final group on the last day of an event, Couples had to pull out of the Doral-Ryder Open because of back spasms.

Huston won.

“He didn’t show up,” Huston said. “But it worked out.”

Couples was out for three months after that, but he’s healthy again, which he hopes is bad news for everybody else.

“I would like to have three or four good years in a row and just see what I can do,” he said.

Only two players broke 70 in the soggy conditions: Corey Pavin, with a 69, and Couples.

It was an interesting 18 holes for Couples, who had seven birdies and three bogeys. All his bogeys came on the front nine after missing greens.

He won this event in 1992 and lost in a playoff to Phil Mickelson last year, so he always seems to be a factor.

“So far so good, but there’s still a long way to go,” he said.

After this one is over, Couples has a long way to go to play his next two events. He is playing in Dubai and the Johnnie Walker in Manilla. The only other West Coast event Couples will play is the Nissan Open at Riviera.

There is a group of four golfers at 211, four shots behind Huston and two shots behind Couples and Stadler, who are at 209.

They are Bruce Lietzke, Steve Elkington, Bob Estes and Lee Janzen, who followed up his second-round course-record 63 with a 76 Saturday.

Stadler described his own round in one word: “Boring.”

It wasn’t as interesting as the first round Friday, when he was late for his tee time and assessed a two-shot penalty.

“I had a lot of good drives, a lot of lousy irons and a lot of 35-45 footers,” he said.

Stadler said his irons suffered from a lack of proper direction.

“I just kept hitting little spitters,” he said.

La Costa, already 7,022 yards, is playing longer because of the weather, which means that big hitters have an advantage because there isn’t much of a roll off the tee.

“Obviously, the ball isn’t going anywhere when it hits,” Stadler said.

It’s the wet look.