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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 10, 2004

Singh rides birdie barrage

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Vijay Singh chips the ball up to the 9th green of the Plantation Course during the second round of the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua, Maui.

Eric Risberg • Associated Press

KAPALUA, Maui — On a day when a gusting, swirling kona wind created chaos for some, Vijay Singh soared above the crowd with birdies on his last seven holes to take a one-shot lead over Stuart Appleby halfway through the Mercedes Championships.

Kapalua's Plantation Course gave golfers yet another look on Day 2 of the PGA Tour season. Gusts of 20 mph-plus blew early, then fell with the sun last night. There were no bogey-free rounds and eight in the field of 30 shot over par — six more than Thursday.

Singh, however, played precisely as he has the past several months, if not past several years. He closed the 2003 season with eight Top-10 finishes and won four tournaments and the money title — with $7.5 million — at the age of 40.

You could say he is on a roll, but it has lasted so long it appears to be habit.

"You keep playing well, your confidence rises," Singh said. "I feel very comfortable out there when I'm playing. I'm not fighting with my golf swing. ... I'm just going to go tee it up and see the shot and hit it. That's what I've been doing the last six, eight months. It's a good feeling to have. I think my golf swing is in tune with me, and I just feel comfortable with it. I'm going to keep riding it as long as I can."

He looked far beyond comfortable on the back nine yesterday. Unconscious might be a better description.

After playing the front in 1-under, Singh birdied the 10th from five feet, parred the 11th and birdied seven straight. That is one off the tour record shared by five players.

He played the back in 29 for a 64. His two-day total is 14-under 132.

That is three shots off the torrid pace Ernie Els set last year on his way to a record 31-under. And this year the wind is blowing — opposite the usual trades, but blowing tough just the same.

Singh is swinging right through it. He's hit a tournament-best 83 percent of the fairways, is second in putting with an average of 28 the first two days and has hit 86 percent of the greens in regulation.

"He set some lofty targets last year and achieved them," said Appleby, the first-round leader who shot 67 yesterday. "So I guess he's got the feeling of, 'What I want I can get.' That's a good thing."

Appleby had his own surge, birdieing five in a row to go 12 under on the 10th. He held a five-shot lead at that point. By the 16th hole, Appleby and Singh were tied.

"Vijay got on a good streak," Appleby said. "I know what that's like. I was on that yesterday. I had another one today, so it doesn't surprise me. You can hit a lot of greens out here because the greens are pretty big ... the ball is stopping pretty easy unless it's straight downhill. You just get on a putting roll. He was on that. That's how it works."

It didn't work quite as well for others.

Darren Clarke (69), who trailed Appleby by a shot going into the round, double-bogeyed the first hole, took an unplayable lie at the sixth, then birdied six of his last 11 and is alone in third, four shots back.

Kirk Triplett (69) is next at 137. Scott Hoch seemingly crashed and burned with a quadruple-bogey on the eighth hole, but rallied to pull into fifth at 139. Davis Love (71) and Retief Goosen (70) are tied at 140 while Tiger Woods (70) is one of 10 at 141.

Woods' round was just as weird as Hoch's. He hit his first drive into the weeds. Despite the help of a bunch of volunteers and playing partner Mike Weir, the ball couldn't be located — though some 10 others were.

Woods took double bogey there, dropped to 1 over with bogey on the next hole, then clawed his way back to 5 under going into the eminently birdie-able 18th. He hit a perfect drive, then dumped his second shot into the junk again and salvaged a par.

"That was pretty, wasn't it?" Woods deadpanned. "Start off with a duck on one, end up with a duck on 18."

He was frustrated by yet another day of "silly mistakes" and the realization that he might not be able to mount a rally on a Plantation Course he finds hard to "go low" on.

"If you're coming from behind, if you get some putts to go in the hole, which is not easy to do you can try to make up some ground," Woods said. But it's very difficult to make up ground because the greens just aren't as smooth as they normally are."

Singh didn't notice the difference and even Els, after flailing for 32 holes, finally seemed to catch on. He birdied three of his last four after a double bogey to shoot 70 and pull into the Top 20.