Elkington, Wiebe Tied at 11 Under

SAN DIEGO —  It was a cold. Then it was a bad cold. Then it was bronchitis. Then it was time to see the doctor.

When doctors told Australia’s Steve Elkington two years ago that he was allergic to grass, it was nothing to sneeze at. He was, after all, a professional golfer.

It was not fair. But at least it was fixable.

The good news came in the form of a medical antidote. Doctors told Elkington that two pills a day and two injections once a week would probably clear up his condition. They told him a lot of people shared his ailment. The medication worked almost immediately.

Friday afternoon, Elkington shot a nine-under-par 63 at Torrey Pines North for a 36-hole total of 11-under 133 and a share of the lead after two rounds of the Shearson Lehman Hutton Open. Tied with Elkington is Mark Wiebe, a product of the fertile San Diego junior golf program. Wiebe shot a 65, also on Torrey Pines North. He hasn’t bogeyed a hole in two days.

Elkington’s 63 featured 10 birdies, one bogey and no putt longer than 15 feet. It was one stroke short of the North course tournament record of 62 shared by Gil Morgan, Craig Stadler and Andy Bean. And it earned Elkington a zero coupon Treasury certificate, donated by the tournament sponsor, worth $100,000 at maturity in the year 2009.

“My irons,” Elkington said in a crisp Aussie accent, “were right on.” To be sure, nine of his 10 birdies were from six feet or less

Elkington and Wiebe are one stroke ahead of Iowa’s Dave Rummells, who shot a six-under 66 on the tougher South Course, and Canadian Dave Barr, who added a 68 to a first-round 66.

The cut for the final two rounds was three-under 141, which means that 76 players will tee off today and Sunday on the South Course.

First-round co-leader Mark Lye (65-70) is two shots behind the leaders in a group that includes Bill Sander, this year’s driving distance leader. Escondido’s Mark O’Meara. Brad Faxon and Tommy Armour III are next at 136.

O’Meara raced off on the front side of the North Course to a six-under par 30 that included an eagle three on the par-five ninth when he drilled a three-wood to within eight feet. But he stumbled to a 37 on the back side after bogeying 12, 13 and 18.

Bogeys were especially bogus as scoring conditions--little wind, no rain--were ideal for the second consecutive day. Dan Forsman shot 64 on Torrey Pines North. And Australian Wayne Grady made seven birdies in a row on the same course en route to a 66. Grady’s streak was one short of the PGA record for consecutive birdies shared by Bob Goalby (1961), Fuzzy Zoeller (1976) and Dewey Arnette (1987).

Frank Conner and David Peoples, who shared the first round lead with Lye, faded to 74 and 72. This year’s leading money winner, Mark Calcavecchia, shot par for the second successive day and missed the cut by three strokes.

Elkington grew up in a small outback outpost called Wagga Wagga that, he said, was “out there” but not that far out there. “It was somewhat like Abilene or Amarillo or something like that,” he said.

His idol was Australian professional Bruce Devlin. “We were both skinny,” Elkington said.

Devlin became a dubious part of this tournament’s history in 1975 when he needed six strokes to escape the pond that fronts the 18th green on the South Course. He trailed the leaders by three shots at the time, but he made a 10 on the hole and finished with an 80 and tied for 30th at 289.

The locals subsequently named the pond “Devlin’s Billabong.”

All golfers are allergic to water.

Wiebe, 31, credited his success at the halfway mark to the presence of his teacher, Gary Welty of La Costa. “He’s a very positive, upbeat person,” Wiebe said. “He will not feed me any negative thoughts. Even if I want to (act negative), he will just blow me off.”

The large contingent of friends in the gallery also kept Wiebe’s temper at bay. “I was determined not to act like a jerk,” he said.

Like Elkington, Wiebe’s ball-striking was exceptional. The longest putt he has needed to save a par on either day was the five-footer he sank on the 17th Friday.

O’Meara hit 17 greens in regulation but three-putted twice. A poor bunker shot on the last hole cost him dearly. And it made him extra mad because he had worked on his sand game Thursday night after mowing the 3,000-square-foot putting green he has in his back yard. His backyard facility also includes three tee boxes and two traps.

“I’ll have to go back and hit some more tonight,” he said.

Defending champion Steve Pate (141) made the cut with no strokes to spare. Former U.S. Open champions Johnny Miller (1973) and Tom Watson (1982) finished at 138 and 139. Both have won here; Watson in 1977 and ’80 and Miller in 1982.

Notes

Co-leader Mark Wiebe took six weeks off at the end of the 1988 season and admitted to being rusty before arriving here. But he said he wouldn’t trade the vacation for anything. He and his wife moved into a new house in Colorado and, he said, “had a new baby.” . . . Co-leader Steve Elkington’s grass allergy was the least of his problems last December, when he came down with viral meningitis. Viral meningitis, if not detected early enough, can be fatal. Elkington was hospitalized for 10 days and said he wasn’t over the illness for a month. . . . Torrey Pines is the only municipal golf course in the country to host a PGA Tour event this year. And on Monday, any golfer willing to wait in line can play the same course the pros played the day before. Tournament Director Tom Morgan said the greenskeepers will keep the same pin placements on the South Course from Sunday’s final round. And, Morgan said, he expects people to begin queuing up for Monday rounds as early as 8 p.m. Sunday. . . . Today’s first tee time (off the first and 10th tees) is 8:48. The final group off the first tee--leaders Steve Elkington, Mark Wiebe and third-place Dave Rummells--are scheduled to go off No. 1 at 10:24.