Nissan Open: Campbell is happy he finished

LOS ANGELES - Considering the amount of rain that soaked Riviera, Chad Campbell didn't expect to complete his second round Friday in the Nissan Open. The bigger surprise was where he finished.

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Equipped with a vastly improved short game, Campbell nearly holed out two shots and only came close to a bogey once in a round of 6-under 65 that gave him a three-shot lead over Robert Allenby.

Whether he keeps that lead won't be determined until Saturday.

A four-hour rain delay in the morning made it certain that first-round leader Brian Davis, Tiger Woods and the rest of the late starters would have to return Saturday and face a long day - weather permitting.

Seventy-two players trudged in from Riviera, some of them with mud speckled on their faces and coating the bottom of their rain pants. They had to return at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

"I'm definitely a lot happier than a lot of the guys out there right now," Allenby said after his 67.

Davis, who opened with a 65, had the last tee time. He was about to hit his opening tee shot on No. 10 when the siren sounded to suspend the second round because of darkness. None of the late starters finished even nine holes.

Woods was 1 under for his round and 5 under for the tournament with his ball in the fifth fairway. Campbell finished about the time Woods headed for the first tee.

"Honestly, I thought we wouldn't start," said Campbell, who was at 9-under 133. "But the course was great. I gave myself a lot of chances and was able to make a lot of putts for a change."

The short game, especially his putting, is what has held Campbell back.

He won his first PGA Tour event two years ago at the Tour Championship on the strength of a third-round 61, then rallied from four shots behind on the last day to win the Bay Hill Invitational last March.

In between, the results have been spotty.

Campbell went to see Dwaine Knight, his college coach at UNLV, earlier this month to work on his putting, and it's starting to pay off.

Ditto for Allenby, who won the 2001 Nissan Open - in the rain, no less - but has gone the last three years without winning on tour. He thinks he knows why.

"I haven't been hitting the ball very well," Allenby said. "My short game has been terrible. My putting has been horrendous, and I have been driving the ball pretty bad. And I've been hitting my irons pretty average, too."

The good news?

"I walked pretty well from tee to green," Allenby said.

It wasn't all that bad. The Aussie can get it going when the putts start falling, and that was the case Friday. He holed a 25-foot eagle putt on the first hole, and his irons looked just fine - into 2 feet for a birdie on the par-3 sixth, and finishing his round with a 7-iron into 8 feet on the 18th.

The conditions must have looked familiar. Allenby won at Riviera in 2001 by making short work of a six-man playoff, hitting a 3-wood from 225 through a cold rain into 5 feet for birdie.

"Back then, I wasn't playing that well coming into here, and the same deal now," Allenby said.

Two-time defending champion Mike Weir was among the leaders until the wind fooled him on the par-4 13th. He had 100 yards into the green for his third shot, but went long, then three-putted from 5 feet and wound up with a 73, leaving him seven shots behind in his quest to become the first player to win three straight times at the Nissan Open.

Luke Donald of England closed with 12 straight pars for a 71 and was at 5-under 137, along with Stephen Leaney (67) and Rocco Mediate (67).

Woods, whose 67 was his best start ever at Riviera, missed a 4-foot eagle putt on his opening hole and let another one get away by missing a 10-foot birdie on the third hole. He was at 5 under, and faced 31 holes on Saturday.

Campbell started beautifully, nearly driving the short but treacherous 10th hole, and hitting a pitch that hung on the lip for a tap-in birdie. Then, he negotiated another front pin on No. 11 by landing his sand wedge about 10 feet beyond the hole and letting it trickle down to 3 feet.

The closest he came to bogey was on the 237-yard fourth hole, when he came up well short of the green, chipped to 15 feet and made it to keep his round going.

Those are the putts that have slowed his progress, but Campbell is hopeful he has figured it out.

Divots: Jonathan Kaye (76) and John Riegger (75) withdrew after the first round. No reason was immediately available, but a volunteer working the scorecard came up an excuse. Next to Riegger's name, the volunteer wrote "aqua-phobia." Next to Kaye's name he wrote, "non-swimmer."... Allenby's group was put on the clock for three holes on the back nine. The culprit appeared to be Omar Uresti, who took the full 40 seconds over a 3-foot par putt on No. 12.... David Duval will be playing in Tucson next week for the first time since he won in 1998. A year later, the World Golf Championships began and Tucson became an opposite-field event. "I finally get a chance to defend my title," Duval said.