Initial Stages of Open Go a Little Bit Haywire

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 18, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

High winds and heavy rain pounded Riviera Country Club on the first day of the Nissan Open. . . . No, that’s wrong. It was nice and sunny Thursday.

Tiger Woods and David Duval shared the first-round lead. . . . Uh, wrong again. So far, it’s J.P. Hayes at seven-under-par 64 and the Freeman family reunion, with Robin in front with a 65 and brother Jeff one shot back with three others.

Riviera bared its teeth. . . . Wait, that’s wrong too. Actually, Riviera got slapped silly when 67 of 144 players shot under par.

Maybe we need to look at this thing another way. Almost nothing went as expected on opening day at Riviera. That’s where 25 players are within four shots of the lead, where former champion Nick Faldo made a quadruple-bogey nine on No. 11, where rules of lift, clean and place were in effect and where Woods missed half a dozen putts of no more than 10 feet but is only four shots back at 68.

Afterward, Woods went to the driving range to try to correct some problems.

“Well, right now I need to work on my hip turn, my right knee flex, my left arm at the top, my left wrist, as well as getting my club out in front of me and making sure my left wrist is good at impact,” Woods said. “And my footwork.

“So I need to work on a few things.”

Is that all? The only thing Woods left out was putting on his glove and tying his shoelaces. Apparently, he has that stuff down.

Woods made only one birdie the last 11 holes and said he wished he had made a few more putts. He had to admit he was satisfied.

“It’s only the first round,” Woods said. “It really doesn’t matter that much, how far behind you are. It’s just a matter [that] I shot under par, which I’m very pleased about.”

If shooting under par is what pleasure is all about, then there clearly were a lot of happy people around Riviera.

A couple of PGA Championship winners--Mark Brooks and Bob Tway--are tied with Jeff Freeman and Neal Lancaster at 66. Nick Price and Scott Hoch headline a group of 10 at 67, and Woods and nine others are at 68.

Hayes tied for 10th last week at the Buick Invitational, where he broke out a different putter. It seems to be working all right. Hayes eagled the first hole when he reached the fringe with his seven-wood, then sank a 30-foot putt.

He followed that with a birdie at No. 2 when he hit a three-iron and stopped the ball five feet from the pin.

Changing putters is something he does all the time, Hayes said.

“I’ve pretty much gone all over the map on putters,” he said.

So Hayes played the first two holes in three under and the last 16 in four under. Consistency is good, he said.

And so is persistence. Robin Freeman, a 40-year-old from Palm Desert, has played the PGA Tour on and off since 1988. He earned his tour card at last year’s qualifying school when he finished in a seventh-place tie.

Freeman’s round had an eventful start: birdie, bogey, birdie, birdie.

Freeman said little brother Jeff, 37, just needs to catch a break to make a splash on the PGA Tour.

“We didn’t have much of a rivalry since I always beat him,” Robin said of Jeff.

The national club pro champion and head pro at Tamarisk in Palm Desert, Jeff Freeman had only one par in the first seven holes to go along with four birdies and two bogeys. Jeff said he has nine sponsor’s exemptions to play tour events this year and hopes to earn his regular tour card that way.

It isn’t an easy path, Freeman said.

“Out here, they get it in the hole,” he said.

Lancaster might not win this tournament, but he should get a medal anyway. This is his sixth consecutive event in a streak that began in mid-January at the Sony Open. Lancaster hasn’t finished better than a tie for 15th at Pebble Beach, so he could use a nice weekend.

“My attitude is kind of a problem this week,” Lancaster said.

Besides his one PGA Tour victory in 1994 at the Byron Nelson Classic, Lancaster’s other claim to fame is the 29 he shot on the front nine at the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, the same score he shot on the front nine in the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills. That time, Lancaster’s father had gone home, figuring his son was out of it.

But Lancaster isn’t out of it yet, and neither is Brooks. Searching for his first victory since he won three times in 1996, Brooks tied for seventh at Pebble Beach and says he is putting well enough to make a statement on tour.

Brooks is making a statement about the lengthening of courses to combat big hitters, such as the changes at No. 9 and No. 12 here.

As a player-architect, Brooks doesn’t like the trend very much. In fact, better make that at all.

“The skill factor in the game is not who can hit it the farthest,” Brooks said. “Bashers have a distinct advantage. It gets . . . old.”

For Price, whose last victory was two years ago, winning doesn’t get old. He does. Price is 43, six years removed from his last major championship, and he shot 67 in his first PGA Tour start of the year. He said it was time.

“I was about ready to file an autopsy report on my game,” Price said.

But for Price and a lot of players at Riviera, their games were alive and well.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NISSAN OPEN

LEADERS

Hayes:31-33--64 -7

R. Freeman: 32-33--65 -6

Lancaster: 32-34--66 -5

Brooks: 34-32--66 -5

Tway: 33-33--66 -5

J. Freeman: 33-33--66 -5

OTHERS