Ill Effects Don’t Slow Rose, Wilson One Bit

The news spread quickly around Riviera Country Club. Tiger Woods had flu. As he discussed his opening round of 69 between sneezes, Woods announced his plans for the rest of Thursday.

“Home and sleep,” he said.

At least he had the correct order. On the first day of the Nissan Open, Woods may have had flu, but he did not have the lead. That distinction belonged to Justin Rose and Dean Wilson, presumably germ-free before, during and after their scores of seven-under-par 64 on the perfect fairways and bumpy greens at Riviera.

Clearly it was a great day for scoring, for the healthy and the infirm, especially if you consider that Fred Couples shot a 66 even though his face was the color of tapioca because of flu.

Couples said he knows exactly what happened.

“I play better when I’m sick, but my head is the thing that’s pounding and it’s very blurry,” he said.

That is classic Couples, but he obviously has a point, and so did Adam Scott, who praised his playing partner.

Said Scott of Couples: “He was playing not half-dead at all.”

Couples, who won at Riviera in 1990 and 1992, is tied for third with Billy Mayfair, who won the Nissan Open in 1998 when it was played at Valencia Country Club. Jesper Parnevik and Bob Estes joined Couples and Mayfair at five-under 66.

Ernie Els shot a one-under 71 in his first PGA Tour event this year, and Scott, the defending champion from last year’s unofficial tournament, finished at three-under 68, the same as David Duval, Charles Howell III, Pebble Beach winner Arron Oberholser and 10 others.

Corey Pavin, the 1994 and 1995 champion at Riviera, is tied for seventh with Tom Lehman, Chad Campbell and four others who completed their rounds at four-under 67.

Play was halted at 5:50 p.m. because of darkness with eight players still on the course.

So 64 players managed to beat Riviera into submission, completing their rounds at par or better. Rose and Wilson top the list, both searching for their first PGA Tour victory but coming from vastly different directions to try to get there.

Rose, 25, is already an eight-year pro, yet the vision of the apple-cheeked 17-year-old who holed out from the 18th fairway to tie for fourth at the 1998 British Open is not that far removed from memory. Rose, a South African who moved to England when he was 5, struggled as a teenage pro, but he won four times on the 2002 European Tour.

He was close to a victory on the PGA Tour at last year’s Buick Championship and led by one shot after 54 holes before ending up third when Brad Faxon closed with a 61 and won. He had a one-shot lead with three holes to go at the Disney and was third again when Lucas Glover won.

“In my heart of hearts, I feel like I should have won both of those tournaments,” Rose said. “I feel like if I would have been in that situation a little bit more regularly, I think I would have finished both of those situations off.”

Rose missed the cut at Honolulu, but he tied for 10th at the Bob Hope and tied for 33rd in his last start at Phoenix.

“I feel like I’m basically making progress,” he said.

Wilson, 36, from Kaneohe, Hawaii, knows the feeling. This is his sixth straight tournament, missing the cut at Honolulu and at Torrey Pines, but he tied for 10th at Phoenix and tied for 60th last week at Pebble Beach.

Wilson kept his PGA Tour card when he was 102nd on the money list last year, yet that’s not how he is best known. That came when he played in a group with Annika Sorenstam when she tried the PGA Tour at Colonial in 2003, even wearing a “Go Annika” button.

A six-time winner in international events, Wilson’s best finish in a PGA Tour event is a tie for third two years ago at the Valero Texas Open. He said he had worked hard in the off-season to improve his game, maybe even a little more than usual so he doesn’t have to grind to make it into the top 125 on the money list again.

“I didn’t play as much poker, so I guess I worked a little bit harder,” he said.

As for Woods, he had to work hard to keep from falling over because he felt so bad. He wound up with six birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey. That mistake came at the par-three fourth after he missed the green.

Woods was relieved he hadn’t fallen too far behind. And he also was grateful for his round of 69.

“Considering everything, I will take it in a heartbeat,” he said. “Give me anything under par is a great score.”

Wilson’s round began at the 10th and he drove the green at the 315-yard par four. A two-putt from 35 feet for a birdie and Wilson was on his way to a seven-birdie day. His final birdie came at the 408-yard seventh when he made a putt from 22 feet.

Rose was three under on his front side, which started at the 10th, but he got even hotter on his back nine, beginning at the friendly par-five first hole of 503 yards. He knocked a four-iron to 17 feet and two-putted for birdie.

Rose didn’t seem to be able to stray too far from the pin with his irons, and that added up to three more birdies in a five-hole stretch. He hit a three-iron to six feet at the fourth, a seven-iron to four feet at the sixth and a nine-iron to six feet at the eighth.

Three more rounds like that and Rose may be known for something more than what he accomplished as a 17-year-old on the last day at Royal Birkdale.

“There have been ups and downs and highs and lows. I guess all of that makes you a stronger player at the end of the day,” he said. “That’s what I would like to believe, that’s what I’m becoming, a good, strong, solid player.”