Lehman (62) Attacks From the North

They started the Buick Invitational here Thursday at Torrey Pines, but there was so much talk about the North and the South, it sounded a lot more like the Civil War than the first round of a golf tournament. Was it better to play the North Course first, and then the South Course? Would one be better to play first, last, every day? Or never.

It didn’t take long to figure it all out. The answer was to play the North Course -- every time, if possible. Tom Lehman played it and shot a mesmerizing 62 that matched the lowest round of his career.

As good as Lehman’s 10-under was, though, it was still worth only a one-shot lead over qualifying school grad Dean Wilson, whose spotless 63 on the North Course featured nine birdies and no bogeys. Lehman is two shots clear of Arron Oberholser, who had a 64 on the North Course, and three shots ahead of a trio that includes Ernie Els at seven-under 65.

Among the top 17 scores, only two were shot over the beefed-up, 7,607-yard South Course, which is more than 700 yards longer than the North. In fact, 28 of the low 34 scores were produced on the North Course. The top score from the South Course was Aaron Baddeley’s 66.

Els, who birdied six of his first eight holes on the North, said there was a clear difference between the North and South courses.

“One is like a pitch-and-putt, and then you get to the real world,” said Els, who moves from the pitch-and-putt into the real world today. “There’s a huge difference between these two.”

Lehman surely thought so. The 45-year-old former British Open champion hasn’t won in five years, but he says he is focused again, which translates to hitting 16 of 18 greens and needing only 25 putts.

There wasn’t much that went wrong, especially at the end, where Lehman birdied the last six holes and nine of the last 12.

He has gone back to using a long-handled putter and that helped, but so did all the practice on his short game. To figure it out, Lehman went all the way to the top.

He watched Tiger Woods chip.

“He’s always on TV,” Lehman said.

As for Woods, he took on the rugged South Course and survived it with a three-under 69, even though he hasn’t been feeling well. Woods said he had lost about seven pounds.

He is in a 20-way tie for 35th, but after finishing, he said he had a destination in mind other than the driving range.

“I’m going to bed,” he said.

“I’m grinding out there. I just don’t have the skills that I normally do, but, hey, I’ve just got to go out there and play and hopefully feel a little stronger each and every day.”

With Els in the hunt and Woods getting a shot at the North Course today, that leaves the other half of the Big Four, playing in the same tournament for the first time this year.

Vijay Singh shot a one-under 71 on the South Course, playing with Sergio Garcia, who had a 69.

Phil Mickelson started with an even-par 72 on the South and said that wasn’t too bad, considering it was his first competitive round this year.

Lehman hasn’t been at the top of his game for a while, trying to reconstruct the precision that led to four PGA Tour victories from 1994 to 1996, including the 1996 British Open. But since he was named Ryder Cup captain for 2006 last fall, Lehman said, things have been different.

“I guess I’m pretty much at peace with my game,” he said.

“I really feel like I’m kind of hitting on the same things that I used to hit on when I was playing my best. Patience and ball control and put it in play, put it in the right spot on the green and don’t make too many mistakes, make a few putts.”

Of course, it didn’t hurt that Lehman played the friendly North Course, which played almost three shots easier than the South.

It was just the way Els explained the philosophy of North versus South, course versus course.

“On the North, you’ve got to make your score, you have one chance to shoot something really decent. You’ve got to hope for the best on the South.”

The really great news -- or maybe not -- is that everyone who makes the cut after playing both courses gets to play the last two rounds on the South Course.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Buick Invitational

Facts and figures entering the second day at the PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla:

* Courses: South (7,607 yards, par 72) and North (6,874 yards, par 72).

* Purse: $4.8 million. Winner’s share: $864,000.

* On TV: USA (today, 3-6 p.m., delayed) and Channel 7 (Saturday, noon-3 p.m.; Sunday, 12:30-3:30 p.m.).

* Last year: John Daly won his fifth PGA Tour title -- but his first since the 1995 British Open -- beating Luke Donald and Chris Riley on the first hole of a playoff.

Today’s Tee Times

NORTH COURSE/NO. 1 TEE

* 8:30...Rick Fehr, Justin Rose, Danny Briggs

* 8:39...Scott McCarron, Billy Andrade, Ted Purdy

* 8:48...Kevin Sutherland, Mark Calcavecchia, Jay Haas

* 8:57...Stephen Ames, Brad Faxon, Corey Pavin

* 9:06...Mark Wilson, Chris M. Anderson, Paul Holtby

* 9:15...Paul Claxton, Joey Snyder III, Michael Beard

* 9:24...Bill Glasson, Craig Barlow, Hank Kuehne

* 9:33...Bob Estes, Steve Lowery, Jim Carter

* 9:42...Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Tommy Armour III

* 9:51...Tiger Woods, Shigeki Maruyama, Justin Leonard

* 10...Chris Smith, Robert Damron, Todd Fischer

* 10:09...Roland Thatcher, Nick Watney, Tori Taniguchi

* 10:16...Lucas Glover, John Elliott, Brendan Jones

NORTH COURSE/NO. 10 TEE

* 8:30...Brent Jobe, Alex Cejka, Fredrik Jacobson

* 8:39...Joe Durant, Thomas Levet, Paul Casey

* 8:48...John Daly, Fred Couples, Mark O’Meara

* 8:57...Jonathan Byrd, Mark Hensby, Len Mattiace

* 9:06...Charles HowelI, John Cook, Aaron Baddeley

* 9:15...David Hearn, Justin Bolli, Charley Hoffman

* 9:24...Luke Donald, Dennis Paulson, Skip Kendall

* 9:33...Robert Allenby, Duffy Waldorf, Kevin Na

* 9:42...Vaughn Taylor, Phil Mickelson, Rich Beem

* 9:51...J.L. Lewis, Craig Perks, David Duval

* 10...Steve Pate, Peter Lonard, Ian Poulter

* 10:09...Paul Gow, Tom Gillis, Brian Davis

* 10:18...D.J. Brigman, James Driscoll, Bill Haas

SOUTH COURSE/NO. 1 TEE

* 8:30...Tim Petrovic, Bo Van Pelt, Tag Ridings

* 8:39...Cameron Beckman, Franklin Langham, Michael Allen

* 8:48...Andre Stolz, Ernie Els, Bob Tway

* 8:57...Chris Riley, Neal Lancaster, Brett Quigley

* 9:06...Jason Allred, Charlie Wi, Steven Hakes

* 9:15...Charles Warren, D.A. Points, Gregory Casagrande

* 9:24...Jesper Parnevik, Hidemichi Tanaka, Kent Jones

* 9:33...J.P. Hayes, Carl Pettersson, Bradley Hughes

* 9:42...Ben Curtis, Frank Lickliter, K.J. Choi

* 9:51...Bernhard Langer, J.J. Henry, Pat Perez

* 10...Jason Bohn, Hideto Tanihara, Steven Alker

* 10:09...Brent Wetterich, Kevin Stadler, D.J. Trahan

* 10:18...Gavin Coles, Boyd Summerhays, Scott Gutschewski

SOUTH COURSE/NO. 10 TEE

* 8:30...Billy Mayfair, Arron Oberholser, Doug Barron

* 8:39...Tom Pernice Jr., Carl Paulson, Patrick Sheehan

* 8:48...Woody Austin, Rory Sabbatini, Tom Lehman

* 8:57...John Rollins, Dudley Hart, Jeff Brehaut

* 9:06...Phillip Price, Euan Walters, Chris Starkjohann

* 9:15...Darron Stiles, Mario Tiziani, Rob Rashell

* 9:24...Dan Forsman, Briny Baird, Daniel Chopra

* 9:33...Omar Uresti, Hunter Mahan, Jeff Hart

* 9:42...Joey Sindelar, Zach Johnson, Jerry Kelly

* 9:51...Chris Perry, Scott Simpson, Harrison Frazar

* 10...Michael Long, Ryuji Imada, Matt Davidson

* 10:09...Bob Heintz, Hunter Haas, Greg Owen

* 10:18...Dean Wilson, Dick Mast, Sean O’Hair

FIRST-ROUND SCORES, D12