THOUSAND OAKS (California), Dec 15: Fiji’s Vijay Singh, who earned more than 3.4 million dollars this year without winning a tournament, carded a six-under 66 Friday to take a one-shot lead over Tiger Woods midway through the 3.8 million-dollar Williams Open.

Singh started the day tied for third with Woods and Scott Verplank, two shots behind first round co-leaders Mark O’Meara and Fred Couples.

“Considering the weather, I played pretty steady,” Singh said of the damp, windy conditions. “You have to be careful out here. Even though we had some rain, the greens are still quick, especially if you are on the wrong side of the hole.”

Woods followed an opening round 68 with a 67 and was two strokes ahead of Germany’s Bernhard Langer, who posted a 68 and was at seven-under 137 at the Sherwood Country Club.

“It was windy, blustery, rainy and cold enough that I am still numb,” Woods said. “It was a tough day mentally and physically. I did not hit the ball as well as I wanted to. My short game was pretty good, though.”

Couples was tied for fourth at 138 with Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik after settling for an even-par 72. O’Meara, Woods’ friend and occasional practice partner, posted a 71 and slipped to a tie for seventh, six shots behind Singh.

Parnevik fired a seven-under 65 — the lowest round of the tournament — and climbed from a tie for 14th.

The exclusive tournament is being held not far from where Woods grew up in Southern California and amounts to just a bit more than four rounds of practice. Although the highly competitive field is limited to 18 of the world’s top players, the tournament represents the finale of golf’s “silly season,” which is filled with unofficial events designed for television.

Among the field are 15 players who will represent their nations in the 2002 Ryder Cup. All but two are among the top 32 ranked players in the world.

Davis Love won last year’s title at Sherwood with a 72-hole total of 22-under-par 266. Woods was second, two strokes back.

Although Singh did not win in 2001, he was frequently in contention with eight top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in 24 starts.

“This season, I was making too many mistakes,” said Singh, who will take off the first three weeks of the 2002 season before debuting at the Phoenix Open. “I was not finishing. I was playing well, but I was not finishing it off. I kept hitting it left when I did not want to.”

Woods, who recorded six birdies and a bogey, talked about cutting back his schedule later in 2002.

“I played eight in a row last year, from the President’s Cup to the World Cup. I will never do that again,”he said. “Because of the tragedy on September 11, I took five weeks off. That was my offseason. It felt like my year started at Disney (in October)

and will run through The Masters.”

The 2002 PGA Tour schedule gets under way January 3 with the winners-only Mercedes Championship in Hawaii.

Second-round scores:

134 - Vijay Singh (Fij) 68-66

135 - Tiger Woods 68-67

137 - Bernhard Langer (Ger) 69-68, Fred Couples 66-71

138 - Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 73-65

139 - David Toms 71-68

140 - Mark O’Meara 66-74, Scott Hoch 70-70

141 - Colin Montgomerie (Gbr) 73-68

142 - David Duval 72-70

143 - Padraig Harrington (Irl) 69-74, Lee Westwood (Gbr) 71-72

144 - Scott Verplank 68-76, Jim Furyk 74-70

145 - Darren Clarke (Nir) 72-73, Mark Calcavecchia 74-71

146 - Davis Love 71-75

153 - Thomas Bjorn (Den) 73-80—AFP