1995 / 77th PGA RIVIERA : Everybody Takes a Cut at Riviera : Golf: Els, O'Meara lead at a record-tying 11 under, the kikuyu isn't doing its job, and it takes only a score of par to stick around for the weekend.

By THOMAS BONK

Aug. 12, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

It has taken two days and 36 holes of the PGA Championship, but they may have come up with the proper way to play Riviera.

First, you don’t hit it in the kikuyu.

Second, if you do hit it in the kikuyu, you don’t chop it when the ball is lying on top of the stuff and you don’t take a real big swing when the ball is snagged down there, dimple-deep in green quicksand.

Third, you don’t know if any of this is going to work unless you’re Ernie Els, who is strong enough to excavate a ball out of kikuyu rough and gentle enough to levitate it.

At the midway point of the PGA, no one has played any better when standing in grass up to his ankles any better than Els, a weed-whacker in spikes.

He tugged and pulled a 65 out of the rough and finished tied for the lead with Mark O’Meara at the end of a record-tying Friday at the shooting gallery.

Els and O’Meara equaled the lowest 36-hole score in PGA history at 131, but the way things are going at Riviera, they’re probably writing down these records in chalk so they can erase them easier.

“The weekend is when everything is going to start happening,” Els said.

Looks as if they got started early. There was a hole in one by Lee Janzen, a double eagle by Per Ulrik-Johansson and eight eagles, seven of them at the first hole, where they may just go ahead and put a nest over the hole and be done with it.

The cut was at even par 142, the lowest since the PGA switched to a stroke-play format in 1958.

Jack Nicklaus, nine shots back after a 71, said it for everyone: “The golf course is there for the taking.”

It was another great day for scoring at Riviera, where the greens dried out a little but were still soft enough to hold just about everything that dropped out of the air.

This fact did not escape the attention of Els.

“You can really fly the ball at the flags and the ball was going to stop,” he said.

A crowd of people carrying golf clubs has gathered to decide what to do with such information. Els and O’Meara lead Justin Leonard by three shots after the 1992 U.S. Amateur champion shot 66.

There are five only four shots back and tied at 135--Greg Norman, Steve Elkington, Brian Claar, Colin Montgomerie and Jeff Maggert.

Seven more are at 136--Janzen, Jim Gallagher Jr., Jeff Sluman, Peter Jacobsen, Billy Mayfair, Michael Campbell and first-round leader Michael Bradley, who managed to rebound from back-to-back double bogeys.

Add it all up and there are almost as many people trying to win the tournament as there have been watching it. The PGA hasn’t released daily attendance figures.

O’Meara birdied the 16th and 18th to get even with Els, but said they’re both going to have competition, and soon.

“It’s like a horse race,” he said. “There’s a lot of jockeying going on. There’s a lot of guys behind us who are still in contention.”

Montgomerie’s round of 67 might have been better if he had coaxed a few more putts to fall, such as the 12-footer from the back of the 12th green that stopped a half a roll short.

Maybe that’s why Montgomerie said what he said about those mean greens.

“The greens are horrific,” he said.

Meanwhile, Els was just as capable on the greens as he was in the rough. He needed only 25 putts for the second day in a row.

Now that’s downright impressive, but it may not compare with the manner in which Els handled himself in the scruffy, green stuff. Actually, it’s not all that unexpected, since Els grew up playing on kikuyu rough in Johannesburg, South Africa.

He has had enough experience with kikuyu to consider it a worthy adversary.

“It’s a tough grass,” he said. “Lucky for me, I grew up in this stuff, so I’ve got kind of an idea how to get out of the stuff.”

The stuff should have hurt Els on the 17th, when his three-iron second shot found the kikuyu short of the green. But it didn’t. Els knocked a pitching wedge to two feet and rolled in the putt for a birdie.

O’Meara, a late starter, saw the shot from the rough on the locker room television.

“For a big man, he’s got good technique,” O’Meara said. “He’s got wonderful touch to go with that.”

Others lacked the touch, most notably Corey Pavin, who shot 76 and missed the cut by five shots. Pavin was not alone. John Daly also missed the cut, as did Davis Love III, Seve Ballesteros, Phil Mickelson and Ian Woosnam.

What they’re missing is an opportunity at their share of the $2-million purse, the year’s last major title, loads of prestige and one final chance to locate O.J.’s locker in the locker room.

Oh, and one more thing: “You’re going to see some scoring this weekend,” O’Meara said.

We won’t have to wait too long for that.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Scores

LEADERS

Ernie Els: 66-65--131

Mark O’Meara: 64-67--131

Justin Leonard: 68-66--134

Greg Norman: 66-69--135

Steve Elkington: 68-67--135

Colin Montgomerie: 68-67--135

Jeff Maggert: 66-69--135