Group Dynamic

After one nearly completed round of the Nissan Open, your leaders are not named Tiger or Vijay or even that left-handed Canadian named Mike.

They are instead a bleached-blond Japanese who lives in Westwood and strolls Rodeo Drive with his credit card ready, and a Tennessee resident who is a self-professed “under the limelight” PGA Championship winner with a degree in biology and could probably dissect a birdie with a two-iron.

You know them as Shigeki Maruyama and Shaun Micheel, and not only did they shoot rounds of seven-under 64 Thursday at Riviera Country Club, they did it playing next to each other in the same group. So much for togetherness.

Play was suspended because of darkness with 10 players still on the course, but by then, the leaders already had finished figuring out what went right.

It was easy for Maruyama. He birdied the last three holes, which made him smile. Of course, virtually anything makes him smile.

“He makes a bogey and he’s still smiling,” Micheel said.

Opening day at Riviera contained the usual number of smiles, but also frowns, including a not-so-happy face that belonged to Tiger Woods, who could manage no better than a one-over 72.

In fact, for a while, Woods seemed to be competing in the unofficial drop, toss and spin competition involving his club, but he said afterward that he just wasn’t hitting it close enough to the hole to get many chances at birdies.

Maruyama and Micheel’s lead is a fragile one shot over Hank Kuehne, whose 65 included seven birdies and a single bogey that occurred at the par-four seventh, where he drove into a fairway bunker. Kuehne, second only to Woods as the longest driver on tour, said attempting to overpower courses had its plusses as well as its drawbacks.

“Certain courses, I feel like I have an advantage because I can fly it over a lot of trouble,” he said. “But there are a lot more tournaments that I can’t do that. When it’s going well and it’s going straight, it makes for a lot of birdie chances. But when it goes sideways, it can go further sideways than anyone else out there.”

Fred Couples and defending champion Mike Weir shot 66 and were tied for fourth with Kirk Triplett, Robert Allenby and Scott McCarron. Couples, Triplett and Allenby also are former Nissan Open champions.

The conditions were better in the morning when there was little or no breeze; the afternoon groups had a tougher time. But the tees were not all the way back at the 12th or at the 18th with the new tee area. The finishing hole can be extended 24 yards longer than it played last year, to a full 475 yards, but was only 466 Thursday.

Couples said the key to his round might have been that he was comfortable with his putting.

“I felt good on the greens, so if I can keep doing well and hitting putts, I don’t have to rely on hitting the ball that well,” he said.

“Riviera is my favorite tour stop, and I’m not shocked to shoot five under, but I’m very happy with it. If I can get loose and get going, I think I can continue to make birdies.”

That brings us to the loosest of them all. John Daly won Sunday at Torrey Pines and came right back Thursday to shoot 68, complete with a five-under 31 on the back nine.

It already has been a busy week for Daly, who had a charity event Monday in Corona, a corporate outing Tuesday in Phoenix and barely made his pro-am tee time Wednesday. He could have been tired, but wasn’t.

“I slept like a baby last night,” Daly said.

The only problem was that it took him a while to figure out what was going on with his swing.

“Some days you hook the ball, some days you cut it, and some days you don’t have any clue where it’s going,” Daly said. “I was starting to hit some draws early that I didn’t like too much, and I just kind of played them the rest of the day. So it’s just a matter of how you get started, and whatever shot is working, you got to stick with it.”

Most shots were working for Maruyama. Born in Chiba, Japan, Maruyama joined the tour in 2000 and has won once a year since. His home in the U.S. is in Westwood, where he said there are plenty of Japanese restaurants and supermarkets, plus it’s close to Beverly Hills, his preferred shopping destination.

“I live in the thick of it,” he said through an interpreter.

Hitting 12 of 14 fairways made Maruyama smile too, but that’s the same for everyone.

As for Micheel, he still is coming to grips with fallout from his victory at the PGA Championship last year at Oak Hill, where he made the shot of his life on the last hole on the last day. With a one-shot lead over Chad Campbell, Micheel hit a seven-iron from 175 yards to within a couple of inches of the cup.

“It was kind of a defining moment,” he said. “For me, I don’t really think about it that much anymore. I’m still out here trying to hit quality shots each and every time I go out there. But it is nice to be remembered for something.”

Micheel made the most of his recent putting work with Stan Utley. He was three under when he made the turn, then eagled No. 1, his 10th hole, when his five-wood from 230 yards landed 30 feet from the hole and he made the putt. He three-putted No. 5 for a bogey but made three birdie putts in a row -- from eight, seven and 20 feet -- to close with a flourish.

Whether he remains “under the limelight” or, more typically, under the radar and out of the spotlight remains to be seen, but Micheel says it’s natural that fans gravitate toward the marquee names, regardless of who won the PGA Championship last year.

“I would like to have that problem a little more,” he said.

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Leaderboard

Leaders at Riviera CC (Par 71, 7,250 yards). 10 players did not finish round:

*--* ON TOP Shigeki Maruyama 31-33--64 -7 Shaun Micheel 31-33--64 -7 Hank Kuehne 32-33--65 -6 Kirk Triplett 33-33--66 -5 Fred Couples 32-34--66 -5 Mike Weir 34-32--66 -5 Robert Allenby 33-33--66 -5 Scott McCarron 31-35--66 -5

*--*

*--* OTHERS Jeff Maggert 33-34--67 -4 Corey Pavin 33-35--68 -3 John Daly 37-31--68 -3 Jesper Parnevik 33-36--69 -2 Sergio Garcia 34-37--71 E Vijay Singh 35-36--71 E Tiger Woods 37-35--72 +1 Mark O’Meara 36-37--73 +2

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