NOTEBOOK: VOLUNTEER IS IN THE KNOW.

Byline: Jill Painter

Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS -- Numerous golf fans wanted to know how Howard Park got his job as the standard-bearer for Tiger Woods on Friday.

His standard answer was: "I must know someone."

He does.

Park, who's an oral surgeon, said he knew one of the volunteer organizers for the Target World Challenge. He skipped work to carry Tiger's sign, and he picked a doozy of a day, since Woods shot a course-record 62.

"I would close the office to be here," Park said.

He didn't have to, since Park has two other partners at the Santa Monica office he works at.

Park, a Calabasas resident, was a standard-bearer for the first time.

Volunteers who will be standard-bearers today will draw from a hat this morning to see which twosome they'll be walking with.

To play or not to play

Rahim Griffin, 10, of Valley Village was the lucky recipient of a Tiger Woods golf ball. As Woods walked from the 16th hole to the 17th tee, Griffin waved his Tiger golf club cover, and told Woods he loved him. Woods tossed him his golf ball.

"I'll keep it as a souvenir or maybe I'll play with it," Griffin said.

His dad, Rahim Sr., interrupted to say he would not be playing with the ball that had Tiger's name on it. The two were seen hooting and hollering all the way to the Sherwood Country Club exit so Rahim could show his mom.

"If you get an opportunity, hug Tiger," Griffin said.

Move it

When Woods went left into a hazard on the other side of a cart path on No. 16, it was quite an event to move a herd of people back so Woods would have enough room to take a drop and then swing his club.

Tournament officials kept asking the crowd -- sandwiched between the rope and the hazard -- to move back. As always with a Woods gallery, it wasn't an easy task.

Then the tournament official tried to reason with fans, telling them if they all backed up, those in the front row would still be in the front row. It was hardly rocket science, but that seemed to appeal to the masses.

Also ...

Colin Montgomerie followed his first-round 80 with a 5-under 67 Friday. It was the second-best improvement in tournament history. Thomas Bjorn followed an 80 with a 64 in 2001. ...

Three players shot 10-under scores in the 2007 season. Brandt Snedeker shot a 61 in the first round of the Buick Invitational and became an fan favorite and Zach Johnson -- who won the Masters -- shot a 60 at the Tour Championship this year. ...

Rory Sabbatini shot a second-round 81 after an opening-round 67. It was the worst decline in tournament history, and Sabbatini is now in last place -- three strokes behind Montgomerie.