Sabbatini Gets Hot, Woods Is All Wet

Here is how you know your day on the golf course is going to turn out all right: You are no longer numb.

After Rory Sabbatini finished his first four holes at Riviera Country Club, he looked down at his feet.

“I said, ‘Yes, I can actually feel my toes again.’ ”

And it’s possible Tiger Woods has dried out from his own weather experience Friday at the Nissan Open. He came dangerously close to missing the cut for the third time in 10 months, bogeying the last two holes and making it on the number for the fifth time in his career, this time a one-over-par 143.

Woods was soaked and wore his cap backward to keep the rain from spilling down his neck.

Meanwhile, Sabbatini had already left, taking a four-shot, second-round lead with him, fortunate to close out his six-under 65 in bright sunshine, hours before an unexpected storm struck in the late afternoon.

Woods’ 74 was his worst round at Riviera as a professional, which probably did as little to raise his spirits as being forced to play the last five holes in driving rain, caught without an umbrella.

Woods’ caddie, Steve Williams, wasn’t the only one who made that mistake, but client-wise, he was the most prominent.

“Soaking wet, cold, brutal,” said Woods, who is tied for 69th.

From the tips of his toes to the top of his cap, Sabbatini looked and felt very much like the leader, which is what happens when you fire a round like he did before noon, building a four-shot lead over Craig Barlow and Thomas Levet.

Tom Lehman is tied for fourth at five under, along with Trevor Immelman, Bob Estes, Jason Schultz, Dean Wilson, Tim Clark and Lee Westwood, who had a 66.

The temperature at Riviera at Sabbatini’s tee time of 7:10 a.m. was polar, or felt much like it to a South African living in Texas and obviously on better terms with more familiar weather factors, such as heat.

By nightfall, shortcomings were apparent in two departments -- warmth and dryness -- but at least they managed to complete the second round, though just barely in the growing darkness.

Sabbatini, 29, owns two PGA Tour victories, the 2000 Air Canada Championship and the 2003 FBR Capital Open, and he is part of a statistical quirk involving 20-somethings. He is one of only six players in their 20s with multiple PGA Tour victories, a list that also includes Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Ben Crane, Vaughn Taylor and Jonathan Byrd.

But the list is going to shrink soon. Sabbatini, Crane and Taylor all turn 30 before the Masters in April.

Sabbatini has played the Masters three times and never made the cut. He’s hoping for the chance to reverse his fortune, and winning this week at Riviera would certainly help. He made five consecutive birdies Friday, from his sixth hole, the 15th, through the compliant first hole, the 503-yard birdie machine.

“I obviously haven’t had the career in majors that I would have liked so far, but I’m hoping [for the best] this year ... getting the start the way I have, and feeling as I do about my game.”

This is Sabbatini’s sixth event of the year, and he has already been second twice. He tied for second with Chad Campbell at the Sony Open and was second to Arron Oberholser last week at Pebble Beach. Sabbatini has not finished out of the top 20 so far and he’s third on the money list with $1.26 million, so his start has been a fast one.

The same cannot be said for Ernie Els, even though Riviera is his first PGA Tour event of the year. Els was three over after his first three holes, but steadied himself and wound up with a 72 and at even-par 142 for 36 holes.

Although it was shaky for a while, Els has made the cut in 25 consecutive tournaments, the longest active streak on the PGA Tour. That wasn’t what he was thinking about, he said.

“I’m not trying to keep the cut streak alive, I’m trying to get back in the tournament, you know. I’m trying to obviously make it to the weekend, you get half a chance.”

That’s probably all he has, but at least it’s close to matching what chance Woods has.

Woods hasn’t won the Nissan Open, basically his hometown tournament, in nine times as a pro, and it appears this week isn’t going to break the streak. At least he’s still around this weekend, something that was in doubt after he missed an eight-foot par putt on his closing hole, the ninth. Woods, whose record of making the cut in 142 consecutive tournaments ended in May at the Byron Nelson, hit only seven of 14 fairways but blamed his problems on iron play and putting.

Barlow, a 33-year-old from Henderson, Nev., is a four-time graduate of qualifying school and has fought injuries for years. His best finish in a PGA Tour event was a tie for third at the Air Canada Championship four years ago. However, last week at Pebble Beach, he tied for fifth and made $205,200.

Levet, 37, was born in France and lives in England. He lost in a playoff to Els at the 2002 British Open and was a member of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team two years ago. The best he has done this year in three PGA Tour events is a tie for 33rd at the FBR Open.