Golfers Happy With Riviera

The string of bright, sunny days at the Nissan Open ended Saturday with a gray sky and cool winds for the third round. But after stormy conditions at Riviera Country Club the previous two years, the players did not mind a little overcast.

“The ball is still flying fine and the course is still playing fast,” said Rory Sabbatini, who shot a six-under 65 to pull within three strokes of the lead. “That’s the way Riviera was designed to play.”

Several players said the greens--which they recalled as soft and bumpy from inclement weather last year--were in the best shape they had ever seen. “It’s nice to play when it’s not raining down every day,” Len Mattiace said.

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Scott McCarron has a ritual when he comes to this tournament, something that dates back to his days at UCLA in the late 1980s. The Bruin alumnus rounds up 15 to 20 tickets for some of his former schoolmates, then they spend Friday night having dinner at their old fraternity.

McCarron hesitated when asked what transpired inside the Beta Theta Pi house.

“It’s all secret stuff,” he said. “I really can’t tell you.”

He did, however, reveal there was no food fight.

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Charles Howell III and his riddle about the two men, the bellboy and the diamond might have seemed silly but Mattiace saw the deeper meaning in it all.

“We’re all good enough to hit the right shots,” he said. “How come some guys do and some guys don’t?”

The answer, he said, is psychology.

Mattiace is one of many players on the tour who work with a sports psychologist. He figures that by focusing on the riddle during Saturday’s round, Howell was blocking out distractions.

“To think about the important things at the time.... that’s the trick,” he said.

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Robert Allenby followed his second-round 66 with a 73 on Saturday and he’s tied for 57th at one-under 212. At least Allenby made the cut (by three shots), ending a dubious streak--the defending champions in the last four tournaments had missed the cut: Joe Durant at the Bob Hope, Mark Calcavecchia at Phoenix, Davis Love III at Pebble Beach and Phil Mickelson at the Buick.

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Buck Moore, who caddies for Howell, is a colorful character who uses body english to coax putts into the hole and keeps the sale tag on his cap for good luck.

“I would never take that tag off,” Moore said. “I’ll tell you, he’s going to be something this week.”

Howell already is something this week, in sixth place after a 64 on Saturday that included a record-tying 28 on the front side at Riviera. Moore, who worked for K.J. Choi last year, is sharing time with Tony Navarro carrying Howell’s bag. Moore says he is going to be working for Howell at the Masters, but Howell said he wasn’t sure.

Here’s how Moore said Howell hired him this week: “‘What you doin?’ I said, ‘Starving.’ He said, ‘You got a job.’”

Moore said he has known Howell since Howell and his son went to school together in Augusta, Ga. He has long been impressed with Howell’s ability.

“When he gets his first win, watch out. He doesn’t back down, he doesn’t get scared, he’s got all the shots. And he listens. That’s a good combination.”

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McCarron won a career-best $1.793 million last year, which included a victory at the BellSouth Classic, rebounding from a three-year period when he says he wasn’t close to reaching his potential.

What put McCarron back on track was working with teacher Jim Hardy, a friend of Peter Jacobsen’s. McCarron said he is a “feel-type” player who got lost spending too much time on mechanics.