OPEN CAN GO ON; HE'S MADE THE CUT.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

The moment was late coming and all too brief, but the Nissan Open crowd got what it came for as Friday afternoon turned into evening.

From close to the back of Riviera Country Club's 17th green, Tiger Woods stroked an eight-foot putt, watched it roll into the center of the cup for an eagle 3, and leaned into his first solid fist-pump of the event.

The gallery, packed three-deep around the green, responded to the most famous celebratory gesture in sports with the kind of roar only Tiger inspires.

Like that, the air surged back into Los Angeles' golf tournament.

We'd all been holding our breath for two days, waiting for a Tiger Moment. If tournament officials were blue in the face, it's because for much of the second round it appeared Tiger was in danger of missing the cut, something he'd done only twice in 94 starts as a professional.

When he made the turn at even par, he was right on the cut line. One more slip and the world's best golfer would be scrambling just to preserve his Saturday-stayover airfare.

Well, good news: The weekend has been saved, the tournament can go on and Riviera will be a mob scene when Woods tees it up on the first hole at 8:30 this morning.

Although Woods couldn't build on the eagle, missing a makeable birdie putt on the 18th hole, after a 68 on Friday he is three under par, four strokes behind co-leaders Davis Love III and Miguel Jimenez.

So what if he's tied for 29th with the likes of Paul Gow and Tom Pernice Jr.? He's in the hunt, and on the PGA Tour, that's all that matters.

Face it, a golf tournament without Tiger Woods at his best is like a Toronto Raptors game without a Vince Carter dunk, a St. Louis Cardinals game without a Mark McGwire home run or a Pittsburgh Penguins game without a Mario Lemieux goal.

This isn't because the media and merchandisers have created a false Woods legend. It's real. Sports fans want to witness greatness, history, the spectacular. Woods is the one most likely to provide it.

Yes, there are other golfers, some great in their own right, many with compelling stories, many with something to say.

Most of them say Tiger is the man.

``You know what, I'd go out and watch him,'' said Brandel Chamblee, who's a stroke off the lead after twin 68s. ``I had some buddies come out (to the PGA Tour stop) in Phoenix. I wasn't playing very well and I just knew they wanted to leave me and go watch Tiger. I said, 'Go ahead, it won't bother me.'

``The way he plays, it's something you'll never see again. He's the story.''

After Woods' fourth-place finish last week at La Jolla, the story was that he was winless in his first four tournaments of 2001, matching his longest slump of 2000, when he won nine times.

Of course, he wouldn't use the word ``slump.'' But he was tinkering with his swing, trying different drivers and putters. He joked at La Jolla that the name of the new driver, a Titleist 975EFS, stood for ``Extra (Flipping) Straight.'' Then he found he couldn't shape his drives as well with the new club and went back to the old one.

Woods finished Thursday's opening round here as the 59th-best golfer at Riviera. The day belonged to the no-names. Talk about an electricity shortage.

Still, the gallery swarmed to Woods. Fans crowded six-deep behind the ropes to watch him tee off on the first hole shortly after noon Friday.

Four guys building a house above the fourth fairway put down their hammers and watched. ``Go Tiger!'' one worker shouted. Tiger waved back.

A man wearing a Kenny Wallace cap was following the group of Tom Sherrer, Brian Henninger and Woods. Imagine that in the pre-Tiger days: The NASCAR and PGA Tour fan bases overlapping.

The singular celebrity of Tiger Woods used to be certified by his membership in the First-Name Club. Tiger - that's all the ID he needed - belonged at the ``A'' table with Woody, Hillary, O.J., Elvis and Shaq.

Now there's no need to waste a syllable saying ``Tiger.'' Around Riviera, he is . . . ``him.'' You hear it in the gallery: ``Is that him?'' ``Is that his ball?'' ``Where is he?''

Where, indeed?

He birdied the par-5 first hole but slipped back to even when he needed three putts to get down from the fourth-hole fringe. Woods muttered an obscenity. A woman behind the ropes heard it and actually gasped.

``Let's go see John Daly,'' one young man in the crowd said to a friend.

Birdies at the 10th and 11th and a bogey at the 16th brought him to the 17th. From 275 yards up the fairway, he put himself in eagle range. As soon as putter met dimple, he was in a fist-pumping mood.

``It was the first time in a while I felt the blade release like it should,'' Woods said. ``I would have been happy whether the ball went in the hole or not.''

Everybody else was happier because it did.