Herron Just Wants a Win at Buick

PINE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) _ Unlike several players in the Buick Challenge, Tim Herron doesn't have anything riding on the outcome except winning. <br><br>He's too far down on the PGA Tour money list

Friday, October 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PINE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) _ Unlike several players in the Buick Challenge, Tim Herron doesn't have anything riding on the outcome except winning.

He's too far down on the PGA Tour money list (No. 71) to qualify for the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta, and already secured of keeping his tour card next year by finishing in the top 125.

That hasn't changed his motivation.

``There are a lot of positive things about winning,'' Herron said after a 9-under 63 on Thursday, his best score in three years that gave him a two-stroke lead over Phil Mickelson and six other players.

``Get some confidence. A two-year exemption. It would be my fourth win, and I haven't won in a while. I would love to win, or at least be in the hunt. You have to make some birdies, and I did that today.''

It was an eagle that really put ``Lumpy'' on a roll.

He hit a 6-iron into 4 feet on the 508-yard second hole _ his 11th of the round _ and added three straight birdies and finished off his 63 with a 10-foot putt from the fringe on his final hole.

It was his best round since a 62 in the final round of the 1999 Greater Hartford Open, and his best start on the PGA Tour since he opened with a 62 in the 1996 Honda Classic, which he went on to win for his first of three victories.

There's plenty of golf left at Callaway Gardens.

Mickelson holed a 75-yard bunker shot on No. 11 for an eagle on his way to a 65, although most of the attention was on his putter _ a new model that looked like a branding iron.

It was designed to get the ball rolling immediately off the blade, and it worked just fine on a drizzling day at Callaway Gardens.

As if golf wasn't complicated enough, Mickelson offered this description:

``The shaft is inserted toward the back weight. The weight reaches the bottom of the arc. The face is on the upswing, so we found on the camera that instead of 4 degrees loft, like a normal putter, we had to go to zero degrees and negative 2 (degrees).''

Here's the skinny: He shot 65 in his first appearance at Callaway Gardens in 10 years.

Joining him were Rocco Mediate, David Gossett, Ben Crane, Bob May and Michael Long of New Zealand, who didn't even know he was going to be playing until about 20 minutes before he teed off.

Long was the only alternate at Callaway Gardens. Others ahead of him didn't want to make the drive, and some of them live on the West Coast.

His break came when Michael Bradley withdrew with an injury, and Long didn't waste the opportunity. Coming off a tie for 17th at Disney World, he posted seven birdies for a 65.

``I played the course blind,'' he said.

There wasn't very many people to see anything, any way.

The reason this is the final PGA Tour event at Callaway Gardens is the very reason players enjoy it so much _ peace and quiet.

Sparse galleries were witness to the lowest scoring average for the first round (69.5) in the 12 years the Buick Challenge has been played at Callaway Gardens.

Mickelson, at No. 2 the highest-ranked player in the field, had nine people following him along the 18th fairway when he finished his round. That was nine more than were with Cameron Beckman when he holed out from the 129 yards for eagle on No. 3.

The only witness _ other than the players, caddies and a few officials _ was the woman behind the green measuring shots with a laser. She held up her hands to signal touchdown.

Herron, meanwhile, turned in a dazzling display without many fans, let alone fanfare.

His 29 on the front nine (he started on No. 10) tied the nine-hole record on the Mountain View course set by Steve Lowery in 1997.

``It was a great stretch, and I knew the cylinders were starting to run,'' Herron said. ``To play like that is why we play golf. I wasn't even thinking 29. I just tried to birdie as many as holes as I could.''

Everyone else was trying to match him.

David Toms was among those at 66, while the group at 67 included Robert Allenby and Brad Faxon, who is 30th on the money list and is trying to hold down that spot for the Tour Championship next week at East Lake.

Herron won't be at East Lake, but he would love to get to Kapalua next year for the winners-only Mercedes Championship. That wouldn't be a bad consolation.