Not that the TOUR Insider is trying to be a smart aleck (OK, maybe he is), but this week's visit to storied Riviera Country Club for the Nissan Open has a wonderfully appropriate local presenting sponsor in Countrywide. And if you ask TI, Countrywide can do some brilliant branding for all of the PGA TOUR, because these days it looks like the target area off the tee for the card-carrying members is, well, countrywide.

If it seems like TOUR members aren’t concerned with a little thing like hitting fairways, you’re right. Since 2000 the number of players who have hit at least 70 percent of their fairways has been on the decline. There were 75 guys hitting 7 of 10, on average, in 2000, but the number fell to 67 in ’01, then 61, 40, 24, 19, and, so far in this young season, there are only 16 players finding 70 percent (up from seven the previous week – thank goodness for generous fairways on the Monterrey Peninsula).

The last three years the driving accuracy leader has been below 78 percent. Since stats were first monitored in 1980, only five other times has the leader in that category been below 80 percent – and only one other time has the leader been below 78 percent (Calvin Peete, 77.5 percent, in 1984).

Want more? On the other end of the scale, there are 105 players hitting fewer than 60 percent of their fairways thus far in ’06. That’s up more than 100 percent from the 52 such wayward whackers last year. As recently as 2001 only five players failed to hit at least 6 of 10 fairways for the entire season. It doesn’t mean players aren’t as good today; in many ways they’re better. But no doubt they play with different priorities.

It’s likely the winner will not get away with such untidy play on the narrow avenues of Riviera (but because the fairways are narrow, hitting them is always chore). Granted, length is still a handy tool on the George C. Thomas gem that has been upgraded to 7,260 yards, par 71. Nevertheless, classic shot making has trumped power on most occasions at the TOUR’s third-oldest event.

No reason to think that will change.

Last year: After building themselves an ark in the rain-plagued event shortened to 36 holes, Adam Scott and Chad Campbell squared off in a Monday sudden-death playoff. Scott won with a 4-foot par putt on the 18th hole, their first playoff hole.

How he did it: Scott’s 20-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole, his 11th birdie in two rounds, capped a bogey-free 5-under 66 Sunday and enabled him to tie Campbell at 9-under 133. Campbell shot 65 in the second round, which he completed on Friday. Heavy rains washed out much of Saturday and Sunday.

If the course could talk: Attack early and make hay at the par-5s. Oh, and aim for the centers of my smallish greens; you’ll get a lot of good birdie looks.

Strange but true: The long eagle putt Tiger Woods made in the second round of the Buick Invitational of California (60 feet, 7 inches) is the longest he’s made on the PGA TOUR since the introduction of ShotLink in mid-2001.

True but not necessarily strange: Jose Maria Olazabal became the 48th different player worldwide to finish second to Woods when he lost in a playoff at Torrey Pines to the world’s No. 1-ranked player.

Worth knowing:

•Riviera is known as Hogan’s Alley, for the success Ben Hogan enjoyed there (1947-48 Los Angeles Open, 1948 U.S. Open). Should it also be known as Woods’ Waterloo? Woods, making his 11th start, played his first PGA TOUR event at Riviera as a 16-year-old amateur in 1992. Though he has never finished worse than 20th as a pro, Woods has never won (he has two seconds), marking the biggest stretch of futility in a TOUR event for the world’s top-ranked player who hails from nearby Cypress, Calif.

•South African Ernie Els makes his PGA TOUR season debut and re-appears in the U.S. for the first time since last year’s U.S. Open after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in July. Els, whose last TOUR start was the British Open, won the 1999 Nissan Open and contended in the ’95 PGA at Riviera, but he has not played at Riviera since 2000.

Charles Howell III seeks his second PGA TOUR title. (Messerschmidt/ PGA TOUR/ WireImage)

• Charles Howell III, who has traditionally played well at Riviera, switched two weeks ago to a new Odyssey putter, the 2-Ball SRT model. He ranked 31st in putting at the FBR Open but slipped to 59th at Pebble Beach.

•Another notable player making his 2006 debut is Nick Price, who finished 125th on last year’s money list, the last fully exempt spot via earnings. Price, who traditionally takes a long layoff at the start of the year, is making his seventh straight appearance at Riviera, where he has three top 10s.

• Fred Couples, who has two victories and 11 top-10 finishes at the Nissan Open, makes his 25th straight start in the event this week. He has made the cut there 22 of 24 times.

•Betting on the home team might be tough wherever they’re teeing it up this week: International players have won the Nissan Open six of the last nine years, but three of the last four winners on the European Tour have been Americans, including Kevin Stadler at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia.

• Loren Roberts has decided to skip the Nissan Open to play in the ACE Group Classic on the Champions Tour, where he goes for his third win in a row. Should he succeed, he would be the fifth man to win three straight. Only Chi Chi Rodriguez has done better, capturing four straight in 1987.

•Former champion Craig Parry heads up a strong Australian contingent in the $1 million Jacob's Creek Open Championship at Royal Adelaide Golf Club beginning on February 16th. Since the Jacob's Creek Open has been co-sanctioned with the Nationwide Tour in 2002 it has been won, in succession, by Gavin Coles, Joe Ogilvie, Euan Walters, and Steven Bowditch, all who advanced to PGA TOUR membership.

TOUR Insider’s strength of field index: No Hogan at Hogan’s alley, but Mike Weir and Scott have lots of company not to be trifled with. 9.2.

TI’s power ranking for the Nissan Open: 1. Charles Howell III, 2. Robert Allenby, 3. Tiger Woods, 4. Chad Campbell, 5. Ernie Els.

Parting shot: “I hope I’m smart enough to not even take my golf clubs.” – Six-time champion Jack Nicklaus, talking about his Masters plans, which might include a practice round and the Par-3 Tournament but will not include another appearance in the year’s first major.