TECHS HELPS GOLFERS KEEP ON TRUCKIN' TRUCKS WILL BE OUT AT RIVIERA, SHOULD ANYONE NEED TWEAKING, EQUIPMENT.

Byline: JILL PAINTER

Staff Writer

PACIFIC PALISADES - Corey Pavin was in his hotel room on the eve of the final round at last week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when he accidentally knocked his golf bag into the wall.

His driver took the brunt of the fall and snapped. Pavin frantically started making phone calls to the folks at TaylorMade.

By Sunday morning, he was testing new drivers -- made to his specifications -- at the driving range.

"It was a scramble," said Pavin, who finished in a tie for sixth. "It was not a good situation. I don't usually panic."

Pavin, a UCLA product, normally travels with backup drivers, but he said there was no storage at Pebble Beach. With today's technology, there's no need. After he received his driver, all was well.

Nike, TaylorMade, Titleist and all the golf companies line their tricked-out trucks near the driving range at each and every PGA Tour stop. They're settled between the 10th fairway and driving range at Riviera this week for the Nissan Open, which tees off Thursday.

The golf-club technicians had their final round Tuesday, which is when players and caddies jam the small truck with requests. Each request is posted on an order sheet and lined above the workstation, much like a kitchen.

TaylorMade recently debuted two new drivers -- the SuperQuads and Burners -- and 30 players have begun using them in tournaments the past twoweeks. TaylorMade services 48players on the PGA Tour.

"It's been chaotic with the new drivers," said Paul Loegering, a tour representative for TaylorMade.

The trucks are ready for business Mondays at about 7:30a.m. Players and caddies drop off clubs that need a tweak here or there.

Within minutes, the job is done. The longest any change takes is 45 minutes, and that's to regrip a set of clubs.

One player came in because something was rattling in the head of his driver. Jason Werner, a fitter and builder in training, fixed it in seconds.

"It's overwhelming the first time you see the truck," Werner said. "But you get used to the flow of things."

Henry Luna, 33, drives the 18-wheel mobile workshop -- which he likens to a big Cadillac -- and is a technician on board as well. When he landed the job seven years ago, he first had to go to truck-driving school to get his Class A license. He didn't mind a bit.

"It's a way of life," Luna said. "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't do this."

Luna is on the road for about 10 months of the year but gets Novembers and Decembers off. He leaves a tournament Wednesday and begins the trek to the next tour stop. Luna can drive up to 11 consecutive hours, but he knows all the stops so well that he finds time to sightsee along the way.

He has made himself some fancy-looking clubs but doesn't have much time, nor skill, to use them.

"I'm not that good," Luna said. "I can build you the master club; I can't hit them."

Technician Wade Liles, 39, is the jokester in the truck. He has plenty of stories to tell, like the one in which John Daly drove the ball so poorly at the 2002 Kemper Open that he gave his driver away during the middle of the round. He told the delighted fan that he couldn't hit it, so maybe the fan could.

Liles wasn't annoyed.

"He called me and I had to build five new clubs," Liles said. "If I didn't build golf clubs, I wouldn't have a job."

When a gentleman came into the truck Tuesday and asked Liles if he could fix his club, he said sure. The man came back with a Nike box.

"That would be Nike golf," Liles deadpanned. "Square clubs in a square box."

TaylorMade doesn't even make the new square drivers, which Nike and other companies debuted recently.

Liles married his wife, Flora, two years ago, and he said she used to cry every Sunday when he left. Of course, his co-workers had a field day with that. They banter while making small changes to expensive golf equipment -- little things that could mean thousands, or even millions, of dollars to pros.

"They're pretty good," Retief Goosen said. "They can make a set of clubs probably in about 20minutes. The guys are good, and they've got every possible technology thing on there that you can use to get your clubs sorted out."

And with that, Goosen was off to the driving range to test some drivers.

Luna usually doesn't leave his Carlsbad home -- where TaylorMade's main facility is -- without his chihuahuas, although they weren't on this trip. He loves his job so much he named one Taylor and his picture is just above the counter.

The dog used to sit on the counter in the shop during the day's commotion, but when he turned 1, he began to bark at players and Luna put him up front -- an area complete with air conditioning -- for fear he might bite someone.

You can find Sergio Garcia in back playing PlayStation sometimes, too.

"Anything we need done, they can do in minutes," Pavin said. "I don't change stuff very often, but when I do, I have total confidence in them."

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Riviera not same without Couples

PACIFIC PALISADES - Tiger Woods isn't the only player who had a streak going that won't be extended at the Nissan Open.

Fred Couples, who played the Nissan Open for 25 consecutive seasons, withdrew from the event Tuesday. There was no reason cited, but it's likely due to the same back problems that forced him to withdraw from the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last week.

Couples has had an extraordinary career at Riviera Country Club, where he has made 23 cuts and has 12 top-10 finishes. Couples, who is 47, has played well at Riviera throughout his career. He finished fourth last year and seventh in 2003. He won the Nissan Open in 1990 and 1992 and went on to win the Masters -- his only major championship -- in 1992.

"This hurts a lot," said CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz, Couples' friend and former roommate at the University of Houston. "This has always been a major for him. The way L.A. galleries took to him has to rank right up there in his career."

Couples' back problems were so bad while in Pebble Beach that he couldn't get out of bed to eat. And when he withdrew from the tournament, he couldn't get up to leave, either.

The Nissan Open won't be the same without Couples. He has battled back problems for a while, and even though he has played an abbreviated schedule because of it, he has always left LosAngeles on his schedule.

But many tour stops must be in doubt.

"All I can hope for is that he'll be back for the Masters," Nantz said.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) Henry Luna prepares the shaft of a golf club in the TaylorMade equipment truck at Riviera Country Club.

(2) TaylorMade golf-club technician Wade Liles walks through a maze of equipment trucks to find golfer Fred Funk after making a club for him.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(3) Fred Couples played in the Nissan Open for 25 straight seasons and had 12 top-10 finishes, including two victories (1990, '92).

Box:

(1) Riviera not same without Couples (see text)

(2) Etc.

(3) THIS WEEK

- Associated Press