NOTEBOOK: KELLY GETS SOME PAYBACK WITH HOLE-IN-ONE.

Byline: Daily News

Jerry Kelly, the former high school hockey star who says he loves Riviera even though he has never made the cut there, got a little hug back from the Pacific Palisades course on Friday.

Kelly's 7-iron tee shot to the 156-yard par-3 sixth hole was rewarded with a hole-in-one and, ultimately, his first Nissan Open paycheck.

He got to 3-under par for the day with the ace, parred out to complete a second-round 69 and wound up 5-under 136 at the halfway mark.

It was enough to make his first Nissan cut by five strokes. Only cut survivors are paid in PGA Tour events.

Gone but not forgotten: This week's Nissan Open is without two of its most-familiar faces. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jim Murray, who died at 78 in August, was remembered with a name card and empty chair at a front-row media-room table.

Ken Everett also was remembered. The man who had hand-penned the media-room scoreboard as long as any tournament official could remember died in December at 92.

``This would have been his 50th year,'' said PGA Tour director of information Dave Lancer.

``I always used to come up and watch him,'' Bob Lowe said of the Nissan's star calligrapher. Lowe replaced Everett on the scoreboard this week.

Home sweet home: Former Cal State Northridge golfer Bob Burns is just six shots off the lead, but the best part of his Nissan Open could be that he gets to stay with his parents in Granada Hills.

Burns, who has lived in Knoxville, Tenn., since 1994, has been especially grateful that he could stay at home because he has battled a cold since Wednesday night.

``It's nice to be home and have all the amenities,'' Burns said. ``My parents have the medicine cabinet stocked.''

Another benefit is Burns has plenty of friends and family offering support.

``There's a bunch of people following me. They're rooting me on,'' Burns said. ``It's not that distracting. It'd be terrible not to have anybody following you.''

Attendance update: After two days, the crowds at Riviera Country Club are besting last year's numbers at Valencia Country Club. Friday's attendance of 24,319 outdrew the 19,383 who showed up for the second round at Valencia.

There have been 37,971 spectators the first two days at Riviera. There were 30,863 at Valencia.

Turning it around: Brad Fabel made the biggest turnaround in the second round, improving from a tie for 103rd to a tie for ninth.

After shooting a 2-over 73 on Thursday, Fabel bounced back with a 4-under 64 on Friday. He is four strokes behind the leader at 137.

He credits his round to going back to a simple approach after trying to work on his mechanics the day before. He also pointed to improvement on the back nine, where he went from a 40 on Thursday to a 31 on Friday.

``Yesterday I hit the ball terrible,'' he said. ``I haven't been playing, period. I've been out there, but I wasn't playing.''

By the numbers: Nick Price was the last player in the tournament to record a bogey, going 24 holes without one before bogeying No. 7 on Friday. . . . Tiger Woods made the cut - the 23rd straight event in which he's done that. It's the longest streak on the PGA Tour. Fred Funk ended his streak of making the cut at 18. He shot a second-round 75 to finish at 145. . . . The 77 players to advance to today's third round are the most to make the 72-hole cut this year.