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| May 18, 2003 | Sunday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424 |
Singh shoots second straight 65 for one-stroke lead
IRVING (Texas), May 17: Fiji’s Vijay Singh shot his second straight five-under-par 65 to move into a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Byron Nelson Championship on Friday.
The world number seven and two-time major champion stands on 10-under-par 130 after a tidy round in gusting winds at the Cottonwood Valley Golf Club.
Tim Petrovic took over sole possession of second spot after a four-under 66 at the TPC at Las Colinas in an event being played on two courses. Cottonwood is the shorter of the two venues being used this week but will not be played over the weekend, with the field playing 54 of the event’s 72 holes at Las Colinas.
After shooting a one-under 69 at Las Colinas, first-round leader Jeff Sluman is tied for third on 132 with Robert Gamez, Kevin Sutherland and Scott Verplank.
Singh was among the early finishers on Friday afternoon and it appeared likely that his 10-under total would be surpassed.
Sluman, for example, began his second round already on eight-under.
But as strong winds added to the difficulty of the two courses, few players could match Singh’s 65 and only two, Verplank with a 63 and Patrick Sheehan with a 64, could better it.
When he returned, Singh did not play particularly well at the Bay Hill Invitational, tying for 20th, then missed the Players Championship cut.
His form picked up with a tie for sixth at the Masters.
He followed with ties for ninth in the Houston Open, 11th in the New Orleans Classic and second in the Wachovia Championship last week.
Like Sluman on Thursday, Singh credited a change in his putting as the reason for his scoring.
In fact, he changed putters overnight, going from one Scotty Cameron model to another with a completely different look.
Verplank had the same number of birdies playing Cottonwood as did Singh, but did not have those two bogeys on his card.
Defending champion Shigeki Maruyama of Japan recorded a one-under 69 and finished at 141, but that wasn’t quite enough for him to make the cut of even-par 140.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia, the world number 11, was also one stroke away from playing on the weekend.
Second round scores:
130 - Vijay Singh (FIJ) 65-65
131 - Tim Petrovic 65-66
132 - Jeff Sluman 63-69, Kevin Sutherland 64-68, Scott Verplank 69-63, Robert Gamez 66-66
134 - Luke Donald (GBR) 69-65, Briny Baird 65-69, Cameron Beckman 66-68, Robert Allenby (AUS) 67-67, Brad Faxon 67-67, Jim Furyk 64-70, J.P. Hayes 66-68, Lee Janzen 68-66, Jerry Kelly 65-69
135 - Peter Lonard (AUS) 68-67, Hidemichi Tanaka (JPN) 66-69, Robert Damron 69-66, Chris DiMarco 70-65, Dudley Hart 68-67, Per-Ulrik Johansson (SWE) 66-69, Mark Walker 65-70
GUT KADEN (Germany): Padraig Harrington takes a two-shot lead into the final round of the Tour Players’ Championship of Europe on Sunday after Irish players dominated the third day’s action.
Irishman Harrington’s two-under-par 70 took him to 15-under-par 201, two better than young Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell, who carded a 68.
Two players are a further stroke back, South African Retief Goosen and Denmark’s Mads Vibe-Hastrup.
Tournament favourite Tiger Woods, though, failed to live up to expectations and an error-strewn 70 left him nine strokes behind Harrington.
Woods conceded he would “probably not” take his third successive TPC title and fourth in five years after struggling with his driving as well as having no luck on the greens.
No-one is ruling the world number one out, though. In 1998 he was eight strokes behind Ernie Els in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Phuket, Thailand, and went on to beat the South African in a playoff.
Among Harrington’s more likely final-day threats is another Irishman, Ulsterman Darren Clarke, lying four strokes back.
Third round scores:
201 Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 65 66 70
203 Graeme McDowell 70 65 68
204 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Denmark) 71 67 66, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 65 69 70
205 Anthony Wall 71 70 64, Niclas Fasth (Sweden) 68 69 68, Darren Clarke 67 69 69, Paul Casey 70 66 69, Paul Lawrie 70 66 69, Andrew Coltart 68 67 70
206 Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 71 70 65, Greg Owen 70 69 67, Stephen Gallacer 71 67 68, Thomas Levet (France) 71 67 68, Colin Montgomerie 69 69 68, Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 68 67 71.—AFP/Reuters
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