Petterrson Leads Honda Classic by Two

<br>PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) _ The tees on the par-3 third hole were moved up 98 yards. Only three hole locations were four paces from the edge of the greens. A refreshing breeze replaced howling

Friday, March 12th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) _ The tees on the par-3 third hole were moved up 98 yards. Only three hole locations were four paces from the edge of the greens. A refreshing breeze replaced howling winds.

It led to a pleasant surprise at the Honda Classic, which made Carl Pettersson's 9-under 63 on Thursday no surprise at all.

Pettersson took only 22 putts, a good recipe on any course, at any tournament.

But even the 26-year-old Swede noticed a pleasant difference about the Sunset course at Mirasol that he had played in the day leading up to the Honda Classic.

``It wasn't playing as tough as it could have,'' said Pettersson, who had a two-shot lead over Mark Hensby. ``They set it up nice and fair. I think they've got the pins in slightly easier spots. They could put them in ridiculous places.

``Glad they didn't.''

Hensby was among the last to finish, and he shot up the leaderboard with four straight birdies and a par for a 65. Jesper Parnevik, Steve Flesch and Rory Sabbatini were another stroke back.

Parnevik might have been the only guy who saw this coming.

He lives only 15 minutes away, and while the Sunrise course has been open only four months, Parnevik has managed to play it a few times during the offseason.

``I knew it was going to be ... not easy, but fairly low scoring,'' he said. ``Because you can reach most of the par 5s, and it was not blowing even nearly as hard as yesterday.''

Sunrise wasn't the pushover that the adjacent Sunset Course was last year, when the cut was a record 6 under and 13 players finished at 20 under or better.

But it played so difficult during the pro-am round Wednesday, when a strong wind came out of the opposite direction, that some players were bracing for the worst.

John Riegger, among those at 67, played only nine holes during a practice round, called his wife and asked if she could bring the kids down for a vacation. His oldest daughter is in driver's education, so he had to stick around.

``I didn't see that kind of score, put it that way,'' Riegger said. ``I think the only reason the golf course was playable today was the tour officials did an outstanding job of setting up the golf course.''

The 246-yard third hole played from a forward tee at 158 yards. Hole locations were not tucked to the edge of greens that drop off severely on all sides.

That was no accident.

``We're trying to err on the conservative side,'' rules official Tony Wallin said. ``The course is young. It only opened in November. It's hard, dry and fast. And if you err on the non-conservative side, that's when you really get in trouble, because then things can just go crazy.''

Pettersson went crazy in a good way.

The Swede, who moved to England when he was 10 and to North Carolina as a teenager, matched his best score on the PGA Tour with a bogey-free round.

After saving par with a 20-foot putt on No. 10, he holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-3 11th _ another tee that was moved up 23 yards to play at 208 yards _ and closed out his round with a 7-iron into 6 inches on the 18th.

``I obviously made a lot of putts to shoot 9 under,'' he said. ``I've played better rounds tee-to-green, but I made the putts, which is a huge difference.''

Fred Couples, who predicted Wednesday that 75 would only be a mediocre score if the pins were tucked, shot 30 on his back nine and was in a large group at 68 that included Brad Faxon and Robert Allenby.

Davis Love III was cruising along at 5 under until he missed the green four straight times, and only got up-and-down from the collection area three times. He wound up with a 69.

``It's a little fun, but a little bit frustrating,'' Love said.

He wasn't the least bit surprised that Pettersson shot such a low score, and had so much company.

``They talk for two to three days about how hard it is, and someone goes and shoots 7 or 8 under,'' Love said. ``It happens all the time.''

The players got some help from the PGA Tour, but that can change. All it takes is a little wind and a few more tough hole locations.

``I'm quite comfortable as it is,'' Sabbatini said. ``I don't think they need to set it up any harder.''