Faxon Gets a Lift From Wet-Course Rules : Golf: He shoots 64 at Soggy Hills, er, Poppy Hills, for one-shot lead over Watson, Zoeller and Boros.

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 4, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PEBBLE BEACH —

The key to putting is reading the greens, so Davis Love III was a would-be scholar in spikes Friday at the Pebble Beach course.

He flunked.

“They look fast, you think they’re going to be fast, they’ve got to be fast, but they’re just not,” Love said.

Putts rolled and spun and hopped on greens the consistency of mashed potatoes during the second day of the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where just enough of them went in to add a little fun to the whole thing.

Brad Faxon’s 64 at Poppy Hills gave him a 36-hole score of 10-under-par 134 and put him a shot ahead of Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller and Guy Boros under continued sunny but soggy conditions, not to mention favorable rules.

At Poppy Hills and Spyglass Hill once again--but not at Pebble--players were allowed to improve their lies everywhere except in the bunkers and on the greens. Faxon greeted such opportunity with an open stance.

“When you miss the fairway and you can still tee it up in the rough, it’s pretty easy,” he said. “It’s pretty nice.”

Faxon saved par on No. 9 after making a nice up-and-down from a greenside bunker and joked about not being able to improve his lie.

“We’ve got to change that rule,” he said. “It’s not fair to have to hit it out of a sand trap.”

Faxon owed his lead to a spree of threes. He finished with 10 of them, seven on the front nine, where he shot a 30. He made seven birdie putts from seven to 25 feet.

“I’m pretty happy,” he said.

So was Watson, whose 65 at Spyglass was his best score there. On No. 8, one before his finishing hole, Watson curled in a 35-footer for a birdie that broke six feet, right to left.

Afterward, he said he had only been trying to get it close. He also said he wasn’t sorry to escape Spyglass with a 65.

“My nemesis, Spyglass,” Watson said. “Usually I shoot 75 there.”

Zoeller started with eight pars at Pebble Beach but played the last 10 holes at five under.

The best way to play Pebble was to stay out of the rough, which is not only wet, but it also hasn’t been cut.

“They’ve got some large hay out there,” Zoeller said. “Well watered too.”

Said Love: “It’s U.S. Open proportions.”

Love shot 71 at Pebble and is at 136 with Kenny Perry, two shots behind Faxon.

Boros, 30, is the son of the late Julius Boros, a two-time U.S. Open champion. He followed up his first-round 69 at Pebble with a 66 at Spyglass, thanks, he said, to a new set of irons.

A veteran of the Canadian, Australasian and Nike tours, Boros got his PGA Tour card in qualifying school in 1993.

He said he inherited a good attitude from his father.

“(But) I didn’t inherit his swing,” Boros said. “I wish I had. I would have been out here a few years before.”

Is it the hula hoop and the pet rock, or is it here to stay?

It’s cross-handed putting and it seems to be all the rage on the pro tour lately.

Fred Couples, Paul Azinger, Payne Stewart, Nick Faldo, Tom Kite--they all are using it.

What they’re doing is changing their putting grips, moving their right hands to the top and sliding their left hands down the shaft.

Watson said he has tinkered with cross-handed putting, but hasn’t used it on the tour and doesn’t intend to.

Zoeller said he isn’t going to putt cross-handed either, but he understands why others do.

“This game is very difficult,” Zoeller said. “Hell, if you get to kick (the ball) in with your feet, you do it. If it takes a broomstick to knock it in, you do it, know what I mean?”

Anyway, Zoeller said, he’s against tinkering.

“I don’t putt well enough to tinker,” he said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LEADERS

Brad Faxon: 70-64--134

Guy Boros: 69-66--135

Fuzzy Zoeller: 68-67--135

Tom Watson: 70-65--135

Kenny Perry: 68-68--136

Davis Love III: 65-71--136

Jim Furyk: 70-68--138

Hal Sutton: 69-69--138