Riviera Provides a Big Target

John Daly, who appears to be on a first-name basis with all the major food groups, said he tipped the scales at 282 pounds after Christmas but had since managed to get his weight down to about 235.

The words had barely escaped his mouth, which few things actually do, when a loud, rolling rumble of thunder nearly shook him out of his chair and prompted him to look up.

“I didn’t lie,” he said.

After the second round of the Nissan Open, a mere five days after helping himself to a victory in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines -- his first on the PGA Tour in nine years -- Daly is only two shots out of the lead.

That’s no lie, either.

It might be fair to ask, is Daly on some kind of winning diet?

“I don’t know,” he said after his seven-under 64 at that big softy, Riviera Country Club. “I’m just happy where I am right now.”

All in all, it was a happy day for a lot of players Friday, mainly because they had the chance to punch Riviera into submission, so they did. As much as the players profess their adoration of Riviera, there’s nothing quite like torching the place to take their affection to an entirely different level. Which is why defending champion Mike Weir has so much love in his heart this morning.

Weir followed up his opening 66 with a second-round 64 and a 36-hole total of 130 that tied the tournament record set by Davis Love III 12 years ago. Proving that records are meant to be tied, Shigeki Maruyama matched Weir’s total a few hours later when, after missing the green at the 18th, he saved par with a 12-foot putt to finish off a 66.

It took a small change in his putting style, keeping his lower body still, for Weir to start seeing results. And what he’s been seeing at Riviera has not been something he would have predicted.

“I didn’t expect to be 12 under after two days, but the golf course, being very soft and without wind, the guys are attacking it,” Weir said. “The [low] numbers are out there right now.”

Even with their record-tying performances, Weir and Maruyama were only one shot ahead of Scott McCarron and Briny Baird, who shot a 62, a stroke off the course record. Baird had a couple of chances to go even lower, but his 10-foot birdie putt at the second spun out of the hole, then he missed a four-footer for birdie at the 12th.

McCarron, who tied for second behind winner Len Mattiace in 2002, has switched to Hogan irons and changed every club in his bag except for his long-handled putter. After his 66, McCarron was asked whether it would be an advantage for him if the scoring continued to take the low road.

“As long as I’m the one going low, it’s to my advantage,” he said.

Explaining the obvious, Baird said Riviera’s combination of soft, relatively bump-free greens, short rough and little or no wind was simply room service for the pros.

“If I can shoot 62, jeez, it must be real easy,” Baird joked.

It was also easier for Tiger Woods, who came back with a 66 but moved up to only a tie for 38th place and, at four-under 138, is eight shots back.

Woods had six birdies after scoring an eagle at the first, where he hit his second shot to within 11 feet from 217 yards. He also had three bogeys, two in succession on the fourth and fifth holes. Still, he felt good about playing better, even if he didn’t make up a lot of ground.

“It’s amazing, just looking on the board and seeing 20-some-odd guys at four under par or better today,” he said.

“I didn’t think the golf course was playing that easy, but evidently it is.”

At the end of the day, 42 players were at four under or better. The cut was at one-under 141, five shots lower than last year. And Friday’s scoring average was 69.76.

Weir was three under through three, thanks to an eagle at the 503-yard first hole, where he hit a four-iron to 20 feet and made the putt. In a six-hole stretch on the back side, from the 12th through the 17th, Weir made five birdie putts, all from six feet or closer.

Even though he shares the lead at the halfway point, Weir remembers when it wasn’t so easy for him at Riviera, where he missed the cut in his first three appearances.

“It’s a golf course I felt like I would do well on,” he said. “Maybe I just put too much pressure on myself in the past. You know, Hogan’s Alley, and it’s a great golf course and I wanted to play well at it and I just didn’t do it.”

If Weir has the place figured out, there’s still some work to be done on figuring out Daly. He’s not even sure how he won last week, his first tour victory since the British Open in 1995 and his first in the U.S. since the 1994 BellSouth Classic.

Daly attracts his share of rabid fans, although his recent and unexpected prowess hasn’t brought out the zanier ones. He says he knows why.

“I think everybody is still in shock from last week,” he said. “All of my friends are. I’m even more clueless.”

No matter what happens this weekend, Daly said he had embraced a new way to live:

“I just want to do good. My goal is not to make the same stupid mistakes that I made and not trust some of the people that I have trusted in the past. It’s life. You learn. You live and learn. It’s just taken me a lot longer than most people.”

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Leaderboard

Leaders at Riviera CC (Par 71, 7,250 yards) after the second round:

ON TOP

*--* Player 1st 2nd Total Par Mike Weir 66 64 130 -12 Shigeki Maruyama 64 66 130 -12 Scott McCarron 66 65 131 -11 Briny Baird 69 62 131 -11 John Daly 68 64 132 -10 Tim Herron 69 64 133 -9 Russ Cochran 67 66 133 -9 Jeff Maggert 67 66 133 -9 Kirk Triplett 66 67 133 -9

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OTHERS

*--* Player 1st 2nd Total Par Shaun Micheel 64 70 134 -8 Tiger Woods 72 66 138 -4 Vijay Singh 71 70 141 -1

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