`THESE GUYS' REALLY CAN PLAY.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

Michael Muehr shot five strokes better than God on Friday. That might earn him a mention in the national dispatches from the second round of the Nissan Open.

The demure Muehr, a recent call-up from the secondary Buy.Com Tour, shot an 8-under-par 63 to Tiger Woods' 68 in the rain and cold at Riviera Country Club.

It probably won't make some news reports, but Davis Love III had the second-round lead to himself for most of the day after cobbling together a 4-under-par 67 in conditions that were ideal only if you were an umbrella.

The morning deluge gave way to afternoon gusts that blew the late- starting Miguel Angel Jimenez to a spot beside Love on the leaderboard with a two-day total of 7-under-par 135.

Love and Jimenez both are interesting stories. There's only one Tiger, though; ergo, the thinking goes, there's no other tale worth telling.

So it is you'll find a ``Woods Watch'' in one daily publication but no ``Love Notes.'' And that's why you're much more likely to read or hear today about what Woods has to do to win his 25th tour event than how any of the 28 golfers ahead of him at the midway point arrived there.

Don't misunderstand - in Woods, I trust.

I appreciate the heavenly way he swings a club and gawk like everybody else at some of the otherworldly numbers he has posted.

I recognize he is as rare a phenomenon as Halley's Comet. No one has to explain to me how Woods is building the Taj Mahal of golf careers.

I just don't see why he's always the story even when he's not.

Since when does the spotlight travel in the middle of the pack, which is where Woods is stuck?

Whatever Woods does here is a big deal, people tell me, because he is oh for 4 in 2001. So? St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire can go four at-bats without a home run and no one blinks twice. This is not exactly newsworthy, unless you happen to be Woods's latest biographer.

That Woods, 25, has no firsts this year is less a reflection of his play than confirmation of what I'm trying to say. Namely, that the PGA Tour isn't really a one-man play; it merely seems that way if you follow the daily reviews.

Woods is not in a slump. He's winless because other players in the field have been surging. I mean, the last time I looked, the PGA Tour didn't consist of Woods and a bunch of pretenders crashing the courses a la Rosie Ruiz each week.

There's a reason the tour slogan is ``These guys can play'' and not ``I am Tiger Woods.''

Robert Allenby is one of ``these guys.'' After firing a sizzling 64 in the morning slop, Allenby sits two shots behind Love and Jimenez. Granted, Allenby is not a household name unless you live in Melbourne, Australia. Allenby, though, won two of the tournaments last year that Woods did not.

His story gets better. In 1996, Allenby was driving in Spain on a foggy night when he had a head-on collision. His head cracked open like an egg hit against a skillet. He broke his sternum and suffered damage to his neck when his chest slammed into the steering wheel.

``I came this close to dying,'' Allenby said, holding his thumb and index finger less than an inch apart.

For a long time afterward, Allenby would wake up with headaches. He suffers from back pain related to the accident. His is an inspirational story. It's a pity it goes largely untold, relegated to the background by the news of what Woods ate or who he's dating or how he's feeling.

Too, it's a shame more people this week won't learn about Jimenez, who didn't take up the game in his native Spain until he was 15 (at which age Woods already was a king-in-waiting).

And it's simply not right that Love has a first and a second in his last two starts and yet the casual sports fan would be hard-pressed to pick him out of a Brooks Brothers lineup.

After all, it's Love, not Woods, who has played himself into position to win the $500,000 bonus that goes to the best performer on the tour's West Coast swing. The money is his, so long as he doesn't pull a Kirk Triplett over the weekend.

(In a subplot to the day's drama over whether Woods would survive his 64th consecutive cut, Triplett, the defending champion, chased a 66 with an 81 and didn't come within a 60-degree wedge shot of playing on the weekend).

This is how off-center the bull's-eye has drifted: When Woods spends hour upon hour pounding range balls after a round, he's lauded by writers for his diligence. And yet let Vijay Singh do the same thing and he's roundly dismissed as a one-dimensional bore.

If you ask me, a little perspective is in order. But when I asked the Australian, Allenby, about the all-Woods-all-the-time news coverage, he chided me for not knowing the score.

``Are you a golf writer?'' he asked, as if only by covering a single sport to the exclusion of all others could one possibly see the big picture.

``I don't think you understand,'' Allenby continued after I explained that I was not, in fact, a full-time chronicler of his sport. ``Tiger Woods is the best player in the world. He's an icon. People are interested in knowing what he does. It's as simple as that. He's good for everyone.''

Except when he's not. What about the weeks Woods doesn't play? Or the weekends he's not stalking the leaderboard?

To be sure, there are plenty of stories to sustain the public's interest when Woods is not the angle.

If only more people would bother telling them.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Tiger Woods seems to be enjoying himself in the 11th fairway during Friday's play in the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club.