COURSE REVIEWS

Second Round Coverage:
Singh Makes a Saturday Charge

By David R. Holland,
Senior Regional Staff Writer

 

	Vijay Singh

PEBBLE BEACH, CA -- Vijay Singh hates hitting a bad long-iron shot. So you knew after his second shot on the par-5 18th, a 2-iron, missed the green at Pebble Beach Golf Links to the right, he was going to spend some time on the range.

Never mind he had just shot 5-under-par 67 to take a one-stroke lead (11-under-par) over Notah Begay in the second round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Begay fired a 4-under-par 68 at Pebble Beach for a 10-under mark.

“Jack Nicklaus once told me that I should wind down after a round,” Singh said, “but I’ll go work on my game. Jack came out there yesterday and hit 10 to 15 balls and left.”

So Singh will be thinking of his long irons and not thinking of Tiger Woods’ “streak” -- no way. Woods struggled at Spyglass Hill and needed a scrambling par on the 18th just to register a 1-over-par 73 -- eight shots back with two rounds to go.

"I didn't shoot myself out of the tournament," Woods said. "If there are two more rounds, I still have a chance. If there's one more round, I have to shoot low and hope for the best."

• Preview: AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am • Weekend Notebook from Pebble Beach • Past PGA Tour tournament coverage

Singh and Begay braved rain and wind up to 25 mph during their round, but the rain didn’t last long and the wind wasn’t as bad as on Thursday and Friday. Toward the end of the day it was warm and sunny.

Singh had a bogey-free round with several par saves and a total of 133 heading in to his round tomorrow at Spyglass.

"I'm not really worried about his streak," Singh said. "I'm just going to go out there and try to win the golf tournament. Sooner or later, somebody is going to break that."

Woods was frustrated with a round that took six hours and 17 minutes. “"It's difficult to get your rhythm," he said. It was his first over-par round in 13 tries -- since the final round of the National Car Rental Classic at Disney World back in October.

As for David Duval, who was tied with Singh and Begay after the first round, he bogeyed the first hole and shot 76 to disappear, nine strokes off the lead.

When asked what Begay thinks Tiger will do when he sees the leaderboard and Begay in second he said: “Tiger will be mad. When he sees me near the lead he will want to come out and shoot 65 tomorrow. When we were playing in college (at Stanford) I probably won a tournament two or three times to beat Tiger, but most of the time I knew if I was near Tiger in a tournament I was near the lead.”

	David Duval

Begay’s round of 4-under-par 68 included eight birdies and four bogeys. The birdies came at Nos. 1, 2, 6, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 18. The bogeys came at 3, 5, 7 and 17.

“I didn’t play the par-3s very well today,” Begay said. “I usually play them very well. When I was standing on the first tee I thought I’d make some bogeys today, but I just wanted to make more birdies. I’d be very happy making eight on any day.”

On the par-3 17th Begay hit his tee shot fat and came up well short of the green -- and the national TV cameras were watching.

	Notah Begay

“That was embarrassing,” Begay said. “I was in-between clubs and I was trying to knock down a 4-iron. It was just a case of me not committing to the shot and I hit it fat.” On Sunday, the third round of the tournament, Begay will be at Spyglass Hill. “Most of us think Spyglass is the hardest golf course of the three, so I’ll really need to be ready,” he said.

The 72-hole golf tournament is scheduled to end on Monday after Thursday’s weather suspension. It will be televised on CBS.