MIXED BAG AT THE TOP WILSON, ROSE SHARE LEAD AFTER FIRST ROUND OF NISSAN.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

PACIFIC PALISADES - Pink Pants was charging, Boom Boom was ailing but game, and the only man to win a Nissan Open at Valencia Country Club was off to a fast start in his bid to become a two-site Nissan champion.

All of them might have gone home sharing the first-round Nissan lead Friday at Riviera Country Club but for one of the tour's shorter hitters, one of its fittest players and a steadily improving Englishman who understandably feels younger than he looks.

Dean Wilson wishes he could hit the ball longer but settled for seven birdies in a bogeyless round of 7-under 64 to tie for the opening-day lead. He shares it with Justin Rose, the one-time teenaged amateur hero who followed a shot for the ages at the 1998 British Open with eight long, mostly winless learning years in golf's professional ranks.

Former Texas Longhorn Bob Estes, a fitness buff who has a personal trainer and combines weightlifting, sprinting and agility training, held a share of the lead until a late bogey left him one shot back at 65.

Wilson liked the Riviera layout, which he said worked to his strengths.

``I seem to prefer courses where there is a little more shotmaking involved, just because I'm not one of the long hitters that can just bomb it 340 yards down there,'' said the former BYU player, who ranked 152nd in tour driving distance last season.

Rose felt one of his own strengths was experience, despite the fact he is one of the younger players on the tour.

``To say that at 25 is kind of a strange thing, (but) I have been a pro since I was 17,'' said Rose, who matched Wilson's seven birdies and no bogeys.

Rose, who holed his final shot from the fairway to elicit a roaring ovation in a fourth-place finish at the '98 British Open at age 17, turned pro after that and struggled. He missed 21 consecutive European Tour cuts before reestablishing a game that produced four international wins in 2002 and has been increasingly stronger in recent years.

He nearly won the PGA Tour's Funai Classic last season - holding a one- stroke lead with two holes to play - and was the 54-hole leader in the 2004 Masters.

Rose has yet to win on the PGA Tour, a statistic he also shares with Wilson, but both of them and four-time Tour winner Estes had enough opening- day success to out-finish another strong Nissan field Friday.

Their closest pursuit included two-time champion Fred ``Boom Boom'' Couples, who fought off the flu with six birdies on a course he loves and wound up sharing fourth at 66.

``The flight home about killed me,'' said Couples, who completed a ninth-place finish in the Johnnie Walker Classic on Sunday in Perth, Australia. ``It was just flying with the flu.''

He stayed in bed Monday and Tuesday, ``just couldn't function'' on Wednesday, then showed Thursday how a comfort zone can be great medicine.

``I love the course,'' said Couples, who won the Nissan at Riviera in 1990 and '92, when he also won the Masters. I figured, no matter how bad I felt I could get around and have a decent score.''

Mission accomplished, with six birdies against a single bogey.

``He will say he was really sick, and he played lights-out,'' said defending Nissan champion Adam Scott, who shot 68, playing in the same group with Couples.

Couples finished tied with Jesper Parnevik - whose pink pants established an event fashion highlight during his runner-up finish in 2000 - and Billy Mayfair, who defeated Tiger Woods in a 1998 playoff to win the only Nissan held at Valencia.

``The golf course is in great shape,'' Mayfair said about ancient Riviera, which has been the site of 43 previous Nissans. ``The best shape I've ever seen it, and this is my 16th year here.''

Tom Lehman, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, continued to play like a contender for his own team. The former Wood Ranch assistant pro and 1996 PGA Tour Player of the Year got to 6 under though 10 holes before slipping back to tie for seventh at 67 with eight others, including two-time Nissan champion Corey Pavin, who is Lehman's assistant Ryder Cup captain.

Sixty-three players in the field of 144 broke par and 38 shot in the 60s, including world No. 1 Tiger Woods (69), who also was playing while ill.

``It's part of the deal,'' said Woods, who won his first two 2006 starts - the Buick Invitational and Dubai Desert Classic - and made six birdies against two bogeys and a double bogey Friday. ``You just hang in there and give it your best, as I did today.''

Tournament officials did their best, too, attempting to complete the first round before darkness, but the stop-play airhorn sounded at 5:50 p.m. with eight players still on the course, including Moorpark Country Club head pro Scott Miller.

Miller, in the field as the Southern California PGA section champion, was 2 under with one hole remaining.

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1) Dean Wilson shoots on the ninth hold during Thursday's first round of the Nissan Open. Wilson had seven birdies on his way to a 7-under 64.

(2) Fred Couples hits on the fairway during Thursday's first round. Couples shot a 5-under 66.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) ON THE TEE

(2) From the FRINGE

(3) NISSAN OPEN