Leonard, Elliott Prove to Be the Best Mudders

Justin Leonard, who looks like a poster boy for the Yuppie movement, wore stylish slacks, the perfect sweater and his cap at just the right angle atop his razor-cut hair.

But there was something terribly wrong.

“Look at my shoes,” he said.

Ugh, they were muddy.

But that’s what happens when you play the opening day of the AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am on golf courses resembling green quicksand.

“It was sloppy out there,” he said.

It bothered Leonard so much that he shot a 67, five under par, Thursday at Poppy Hills and shared the first-round lead with John Elliott.

The sky was the color of mud and the air was brisk, but the scores reflected much better conditions. There were 102 players in the field of 180 who shot at least par.

There are so many players one shot behind the leaders, it looks like the line for valet parking at The Lodge. Eleven are tied at 68--Fuzzy Zoeller, Woody Austin, Jeff Maggert, Craig Stadler, Mike Springer, Loren Roberts, Franklin Langham, Joey Sindelar, Steve Jurgensen, Tom Purtzer and Lee Rinker.

Nick Faldo and Ernie Els lead a group of 17 others who opened with 69s.

Leonard, the 23-year-old former NCAA champion from the University of Texas, blossomed on his front nine at Poppy Hills, where he shot 31. He had six birdies and a bogey on the front and was knocking the ball so close to the hole, he left himself only one putt longer than eight feet.

Leonard even managed to impress himself.

“I seem to be doing everything pretty well,” Leonard said. “Most of the time, all I’m seeing is the pin. It’s a great feeling.”

It sort of reminded him of last week in Phoenix, where he got to the third hole of a playoff with Phil Mickelson before losing.

“I don’t feel like I did anything to lose last week,” Leonard said. “I just ran into a buzz saw. It hasn’t been something I’ve hung my head about.”

Elliott, 32, played the Nike tour last year, didn’t enter a PGA Tour event and needs to finish in the top 10 this week to make sure he can enter San Diego.

“It’s kind of a high goal,” he said.

Starting at No. 10 at Pebble Beach, Elliott was two over par after three holes. Then he eagled the 502-yard No. 2, his 11th hole, when his five-iron from 203 yards stopped 12 feet from the hole. He rolled it in from there.

Elliott is a three-time veteran of the qualifying school and finished 45th last year. Because there are so many players ahead of him on the exempt list, Elliott had to wait until this week to play his first tournament of the year.

In parts of three years on the PGA Tour, Elliott has won $74,715 and he hasn’t finished higher than 11th.

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Sally Voss Krueger, a six-time San Francisco women’s amateur champion, became the firstwoman to play the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since 1977.

Krueger, who has a 10-handicap, played from the men’s tees and helped her pro partner, Doug Martin, to seven under par. The 38-year-old anesthesiologist was a two-time All-American at Stanford.