DATE: Friday, June 13, 1997                 TAG: 9706130654

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: - JIM DUCIBELLA

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

ROUNDUP

Taking a mean stick

to course's backside,

McNulty shoots a 67

BETHESDA, Md. - This is Mark McNulty's 12th U.S. Open. With a previous record of five missed cuts and a best-ever finish of 17th, there was no reason to think he'd finish anywhere but near the bottom of the leaderboard.

``I guess the plain truth is that in the past, I've never really been playing that particularly well at a U.S. Open to be able to produce the shots that I did today,'' McNulty said after shooting a 3-under-par 67 that left him just two strokes behind leader Colin Montgomerie.

McNulty, one of the few players here who are wearing non-metal spikes, was 2-over on the front side, then spanked Congressional's backside in 5-under-par. One of those came when he holed a trap shot from a greenside bunker at the 17th hole.

``You have to be patient at a U.S. Open,'' McNulty said. ``I've had good practice rounds and I've been around for 20 years. But you like to think how some of the guys who have won this tournament think.

``I asked Payne (Stewart): `What do you do when you come to a U.S. Open?' And he said, `I just try to remember that par is a good score.' Par is a good score, isn't it?''

Yeah, and 3-under is even better.

Golf's Mr. Nice Guy

Tom Lehman demonstrated again why he may be golf's classiest guy.

Lehman, who played with Tiger Woods, resisted the opportunity to needle the 21-year-old phenom, who beat him at the Mercedes Championship this year when Lehman dumped his tee shot into the water on the first hole of a playoff.

Thursday, Lehman smacked his tee shot at the par-3 18th onto the green, then watched as Woods' 7-iron went wet, leading to a double-bogey 5.

``I wish it has turned out that way five months ago,'' Lehman deadpanned, preferring to focus on his misfortune, not Tiger's. ``He didn't play any worse than anyone else in our group. He got some bad breaks, had some putts that looked like they couldn't miss, but did. He'll be fine tomorrow.''

Asked whether Congressional's greens were as slick as Augusta National's retooled and treacherous putting surfaces, Lehman took a good-natured swipe at the Masters.

``I think Augusta should be on ESPN2 - the Xtreme Games - next year,'' he said. ``That's how tough those greens were to putt.''

Get your playoff tickets . . .

If there's a playoff Monday, The Virginia State Golf Association in Richmond will have tickets.

They would go on sale at 8:30 a.m. Monday at the association's Richmond office at 830 Southlake Blvd. That would give purchasers plenty of time to travel from Richmond to Congressional for the noon playoff start.

For more information, call 804-378-2300.

Strange mum after a 79

Kingsmill's Curtis Strange opened with a 9-over-par 79 that he declined to discuss. Only seven players had higher scores than Strange, a two-time Open champion who came to the tournament proclaiming himself ready and eager to play.

Strange, a two-time Open winner, played a friendly match Wednesday that included Jay Haas and Phil Mickelson, then headed for the practice range. There, witnesses say, he suddenly began hitting the ball to the left.

That carried over into Thursday's round, except at No. 18, where Strange made double-bogey 5 when his tee shot flew way right and he needed four strokes to get home from the thick, wiry greenside rough.

Strange tees off at 12:40 p.m. today, paired with Tom Watson and Nick Price.

Short putts

The tandem of Jack and Gary Nicklaus finished a combined 6-over par Thursday, each firing 3-over 73s. . . . . . . There probably have been more snakes than birdies at the par-3 18th the last couple of days. A huge black snake slithered out of the pond and onto a bank near the green just as Montgomerie was preparing to cross the bridge that links the tee area with the green. ``The crowd seemed more intent on watching the snake than me trying to putt for 64,'' Montgomerie joked. ``That's fine. It took the pressure off a bit.'' Several of the snake's kin were spotted around that same spot Wednesday. There have been several sightings of poisonous snakes as well.

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