RIVIERA NO DAY AT BEACH FOR WOODS.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

All these years we've been looking for a foil for Tiger Woods, for a match for the leader of the PGA Tour, for someone to make it a game against the greatest player on golf's green earth.

And - silly us - it turns out Tiger's rival has been right hereunder our noses the whole time.

The rival is a big old guy, but immaculately groomed. Loves a challenge, is impervious to pressure. Owns a gorgeous spread on L.A.'s Westside, throws a heck of a party.

Forget Ernie Els, David Duval and Phil Mickelson, none of whom has gotten the better of Tiger as consistently as this guy.

Tiger's toughest opponent is Riviera Country Club.

Woods' long history with the Pacific Palisades course went from bad to worse Saturday as he yanked his opening tee shot into a parking lot and trudged through a 2-over-par 73, sending him into today's final round of the Nissan Open in a tie for 28th, a daunting 11 strokes behind leader Charles Howell III.

``It's only been six times,'' he protested to reporters who asked him about his winlessness in the Nissan, whereupon a writer said it's actually eight times if his two starts as a teenage amateur are included. ``I think you're probably reading too much into it (to suggest he's working up a case of Rivieraphobia).''

To be exact, Woods has gone up against Riviera seven times in the Nissan, coming closest to winning in his tie for second behind Els in 1999, missing two cuts as an amateur in 1992 and '93 and finishing in ties for 20th, 18th and 13th in the rest.

His best performance in the Nissan actually came when the tournament was at Valencia Country Club in 1998 and Woods lost a playoff to Billy Mayfair.

Even if you count only his five previous starts as a professional, Woods has played no tournament as often as the Nissan without winning.

Saturday's galleries were still telling him, ``You're the man!''

But when he fights Riviera, he's up against something superhuman.

It's weird, because among PGA Tour courses, Riviera is the one closest to Woods' hometown of Cypress, is the stop where he runs into the most friends and is the place he played in his first professional tournament. He knows Riviera's breezes and eucalypti and poa annua like the back of his glove. He should have mastered this foe as he has mastered the Masters.

``You know, (Jack) Nicklaus never won here, though he came close,'' golf historian Geoff Shackelford said as he tried to explain Woods' struggles. ``Nicklaus is the greatest mystery because the course is made for him, with his (left-to-right) fade.''

But Woods vs. Riviera is a growing imponderable.

``It's the kind of course where he should just lap the field,'' Shackelford said, ``because it is a thinker's course.''

Like Nicklaus, Woods ``shapes'' his shots, a rarity on the straight-hitting PGA Tour of today, and that should help him on this shotmakers' course.

``I don't know,'' Shackelford said. ``There's going to be a lot of theories (why Woods doesn't win at Riviera).''

One theory is that Riviera's contours rob Woods of his long-driver's advantage. Another is that not having played a pre-tournament practice round, Woods is being fooled by the course's faster-than-ever putting greens. Another is that Riviera simply has been catching Woods in poor form, but in fact he usually has played well in the tournaments preceding and following the Nissan.

Neither length nor putting was Tiger's immediate problem Saturday. He hooked his 3-wood tee shot on hole 1 out of bounds on the left, missed the fairway to the right on his second tee shot, and wound up with a double-bogey 7. He was 4 over par after eight holes and, in a rarity, was the only member of the group with Stewart Cink and Bob Estes whose score wasn't in red numerals.

On the 13th hole, Woods' day turned comical. He flipped his tee shot left, against the trunk of a eucalyptus and could hit his second shot only by swinging an upside-down 9-iron left-handed. He knocked the ball about 20 yards onto the fairway on his way to a bogey.

``It was just one of those days where I just didn't quite feel the club,'' Woods said. ``And ... the breaks I got weren't exactly positive.''

By the time he reached the 18th, Woods was resigned to another Riviera defeat.

``I told Steve (Williams, his caddy), if I make par, he's not caddying (today). If I make birdie, he's caddying,'' Woods said.

When Tiger's short-iron shot from the fairway stopped 5 feet from the flag, setting up the birdie, Williams jokingly threw a putter at his boss. They both laughed so hard, Williams walked 20 feet before noticing Woods had left his iron in the grass.

After sinking the putt, Woods' response to the fans' cheers was a sardonic shrug.

``The suffering was over,'' he said during a surprisingly light-hearted session with reporters in the clubhouse. ``Now, I'll just try to play solid (today) and get some momentum for next week.''

Has any opponent reduced Tiger to looking forward to next week, the way this 76-year-old golf course does practically every season? Els, Duval and Mickelson can't do that.

Tiger's legend gains a wrinkle. Riviera's adds a chapter.

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(color) Tiger Woods' string of poor play at Riviera didn't end Saturday, when he shot a 2-over 73.