By Jim Nasella
Florida Times-Union sports writer
Morris News Service

PONTE VEDRA BEACH - Mike Reid shot even par Saturday, but blew past the field anyway at The Players Championship.

Precisely at 8:18 a.m., his appointed tee time, Reid's metal driver clicked to life, and he and caddie Dave Woosley were off on a solo trek as the first group of the day.

There was no pace player with them, so alone they went. Exactly 3 hours, 6 minutes and 28.1 seconds later, Reid was pulling his ball out of the hole on the 18th green with 72 for a three-round 1-under-par 215 total. In between, he was greeted at the No. 2 tee by a crowd of 10 - including three media people and St. Augustine's Mike Coyne, who followed Reid the entire day to ``give support.''

He barely missed birdie putts on Nos. 1, 8 and 14 and three-putted 15.

He was so early that grounds crews on the par-3 eighth hole finished some work only five minutes before his ball landed there. As he putted out on 14, the next group of the day, Steve Lowery and Tom Purtzer who teed off nine minutes after Reid, were on the 11th hole.

``It's a little disarming - it's always your turn,'' said Reid, who is from Provo, Utah, and has earned the nickname ``Radar'' for his accurate shots. ``They (tour officials) asked me if I was O.K. playing alone. It was because that's how I learned to play, and a lot of times I'll play by myself back home.''

It also was disarming, he said, that the second signature on his scorecard was not that of another player, but that of his scoring marker, Marilyn Heaton.

``That's the first time I've ever had a Marilyn on my card,'' he said with a chuckle.

Reid, whose brother Bill is the general manager here at the TPC at Sawgrass, didn't have the benefit of a certain early morning stimulant. He's a Mormon, therefore, no coffee.

``I'm more high-strung than I appear,'' he said. ``I like to keep moving. I was up until 1 a.m. and up 20 minutes before the alarm was set at 6.''

``It (the round) was about an hour quicker than normal, and you can really get into rhythm,'' Woosley said after lugging his golfer's 40-pound bag around at comparative breakneck speed. ``We talk a lot, and in this situation, you talk a little more about personal things. He has a keen sense of humor, which helps. I was hoping for not many bogeys; that would have made for a long day.''

There was one potential drawback to the no-waiting-around round. Reid was worried about the greens.

``Steve and Tom (the next group, which finished 43 minutes later) are behind me, and if they (the greens) are messed up they know exactly who to blame. If you're playing with somebody you can always say `Hey, he did it,' but I can't this time. Fortunately, I'm done far enough ahead of them that I can run out of here and get away from them.''