Kemper Open

POTOMAC -- The eagles landed yesterday in the second round of the Kemper Open, two dozen of them all over the TPC at Avenel. They included three holes-in-one and were part of a record-setting, red-number day on which Fred Funk stretched his opening round lead from one shot to three.Funk had none of the eagles, and was only a witness to Justin Leonard's hole-in-one. But the former University of Maryland golf coach had five birdies in a 5-under par round of 66 that gave him a 36-hole tournament record of 12-under 130.With it, Funk leads three players, Australians Craig Parry and Stuart Appleby as well as Chris DiMarco by three shots.

POTOMAC -- Tommy Armour, who began the week as an alternate and got into the Kemper Open field when Tiger Woods withdrew Monday, responded with a 4-under-par 67 yesterday at TPC at Avenel."

POTOMAC -- When he staggered off the final green and slumped in a chair in the scorer's tent, dazed and distraught after blowing last year's Kemper Open, most figured that things could not get any worse for Mark Wiebe.Seemingly betrayed by a case of the yips, Wiebe had missed short putts for par on each of the last two holes to finish at 2-over 73 and lose by a shot to Justin Leonard."The big joke is that I kind of jump-started Justin Leonard's career," Wiebe, 41, said recently. "Had I not folded my tents, he might not have won the British Open and the Players Championship."

POTOMAC -- The hissing noise wasn't audible coming out of Ben Brundred's office Monday afternoon at the TPC at Avenel, but the general chairman of the Kemper Open has spent the past two days trying to put some life back into the $2 million tournament that begins today without Tiger Woods.Because of a back injury, Woods was forced to withdraw, leaving a long star-crossed event without its main attraction. Asked yesterday what it was like to take that fateful telephone call from Woods, Brundred said: "It was total deflation.

POTOMAC -- There will be no Tigermania at the TPC at Avenel for this year's Kemper Open.There will be no Tiger -- period.For the first time in his brilliant two-year career, Tiger Woods has pulled out of a PGA Tour event because of an injury. Woods was unavailable for comment yesterday, but a spokesman for International Management Group, which represents Woods, said the injury wasn't serious."It's a chronic back problem," said Bev Norwood.Norwood said that Woods woke up yesterday morning with soreness in his lower back and called Keith Kleven, a physical therapist in Las Vegas he had been seeing for the past six months.

Ben Brundred Jr. got a little nervous yesterday watching Tiger Woods play on television in the Memorial tournament. Sitting in his Kemper Open tournament office at the TPC at Avenel, Brundred saw Woods limp out of the bunker on the par-4 14th hole.All the preparations Brundred and others have made in anticipation of Woods playing in next week's Kemper Open flashed in front of the tournament's 72-year-old general chairman."I just about fainted when he swung hard, left it in the bunker and then, after getting out, the announcer said, 'Uh-oh, he's pulled a muscle,' " Brundred said.

POTOMAC -- Being the general chairman of a PGA Tour event is often equal parts salesman and social director when it comes to enticing the biggest names to play at your tournament. So what do you give a player who seemingly has everything but a private life?Beefed-up security.Aside from the usual perks that include free food in the dining room, free telephone calls from the locker room and free use of a car for the week, that's about all Ben Brundred Jr. could offer Tiger Woods for coming to next week's Kemper Open.

POTOMAC -- The Kemper Open is getting ready for its 12th trip to the TPC at Avenel and its first trip to the PGA Tour's version of nirvana.A field that includes Tiger Woods. Though it won't be made official until a week from Friday, the 22-year-old superstar is considered a sure bet to play in the June 4-7 event."As of now, we're on Tiger's schedule," tournament chairman Ben Brundred said yesterday.Woods, who broke a 10-month winless drought with his recent victory at the BellSouth Classic outside Atlanta, will likely play in next week's Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, and at the Kemper before taking a week off prior to the U.S. Open.

When the second Toyota Invitational golf tournament is held next month, members of the Senior PGA Tour could well be playing for a full-field tournament in this area instead of the current two-day event.The opinions of the players as to the viability of such an event will draw careful consideration from the Player Advisory Council in its consultations with the tour's policy board. Ten of the expected 20 pros will be making return visits, including Hale Irwin, David Graham, Jim Dent and Buddy Allin, who have combined for nine tour victories this year.

BETHESDA -- He was congratulated prematurely for winning the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by Jack Nicklaus, only to watch from the clubhouse as Tom Kite passed him for the championship.And Colin Montgomeriewas also part of a three-man Open playoff at Oakmont two years later, but a disappointing 78 left him watching the two extra holes of sudden death between Ernie Els and Loren Roberts."After being so close and seeing how the winner felt, I'd like to experience that feeling myself one day," Montgomerie said yesterday.