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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 11:15 a.m., Saturday, September 6, 2008

Golf: Villegas keeps lead after 2 rounds in St. Louis

By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer

ST. LOUIS — Camilo Villegas overcame a four-putt double bogey and birdied his final hole for a 4-under 66 that gave him a one-shot lead over Jim Furyk after the second round of a marathon Saturday at the BMW Championship.

Rain forced the tournament to start a day late, and players faced 36 holes to get back on schedule. But fog caused a 90-minute delay in the morning, meaning the third round would not finish on time.

Kane'ohe native Dean Wilson shot a 71 and was tied for 39th at 140.

Villegas is borrowing an idea from Vijay Singh by trying to convince himself he is the best putter on the PGA Tour. It worked most of the day but not on No. 9. Villegas lagged a 60-foot putt to about 4 feet, badly missed his par putt, then missed a 3-foot comeback putt.

He was visibly angry, but not for long.

"Yeah, it wasn't pretty there, but came back and made birdie-birdie," Villegas said.

Villegas holed a 30-footer on the 10th, added a short birdie on the 11th to make up for the double bogey, and continued to hit it close the rest of the round. He made a 12-foot birdie on the final hole to finish the first two rounds at 9-under 131.

Even so, the 26-year-old from Colombia missed three birdie putts inside 10 feet, a testament to how well he is hitting his irons on rain-softened Bellerive Country Club.

Furyk holed out with a wedge from 114 yards for eagle on No. 2, his 11th hole, then finished his course-record round of 62 with five straight birdies, the longest from 15 feet on No. 7.

"Through 10 (holes), I probably didn't see a 62 coming," Furyk said. "And then you hole out a wedge and a whole bunch of putts go in. I was real happy about the way I hit it."

Furyk has not had the lead in any round on the PGA Tour since winning the Canadian Open last year, but he is headed in the right direction, especially with the Ryder Cup approaching.

Furyk and Ben Curtis were the only Americans who qualified for the team without a win this year.

Phil Mickelson also was fond of seeing a few putts drop on his way to a 65, leaving him two shots behind. D.J. Trahan, who closed with an 80 in the Deutsche Bank Championship that probably kept him from being a Ryder Cup pick, had a 63 and was in the group at 134.

Another shot behind was Sergio Garcia after a bogey on his final hole. But what put Garcia in the hunt was an ace on the third hole, a 5-iron from 205 yards. He said it was his first ace in competition.

"I've had like seven of them, but always practice rounds and things like that," Garcia said. "That was very exciting for me. You don't expect to make it all the way from 205 yards, so that was nice."

Vijay Singh, leading the FedEx Cup standings after winning the first two playoff events, had another 70 and was nine shots behind. The $10 million prize should be safe as long as none of the top 10 players in the standings wins the final two events.