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Singh takes 2 shot lead into last day

Vijay Singh birdied the final two holes on Saturday to post a four-under 67 and grab a two- shot lead after 54 holes of the Worldcom Classic. His 13-under 200 is two better than Argentina's Jose Coceres, who fired a 64 on Saturday, and Billy Mayfair.

Second-round leader Tom Lehman struggled to a one-over 72 and faded into a tie for fourth at nine-under. Len Mattiace, Scott Verplank and Mike Sposa are knotted with Lehman four shots behind Singh.

Singh used a pair of nine-iron approaches to take his two-stroke edge. At 17, Singh hit his tee shot at the par-three hole to eight feet and then from 163 yards out and downwind on the 18th fairway, Singh landed his approach 10 feet from the hole and snaked in the putt.

"I think it was the best ball-striking round I've had in the last three," said Singh, who has five top-five finishes in nine starts this season, including two seconds. "Today I played real solid. I didn't hit many loose shots."

Singh, who held a piece of the lead after Thursday's first round, opened with a five-foot birdie at the first hole but missed a four- footer for birdie at number two. His next birdie came at the par-five fifth when he missed a three-iron short but chipped to five feet where he rolled home the putt.

At the par-three seventh, Singh missed another putt inside of five feet and carded bogey. It was another missed par-saving putt from four feet at nine that sent Singh out with a even-par 36.

Singh rebounded at 10 when he knocked an eight-iron shot four feet from the stick for his third birdie of the round. He drained a 25-footer at 14 to get to 11-under and match Coceres at the top of the leaderboard.

"I played well and hopefully I can do that tomorrow," said Singh. "You've got to be really focused on a course like this. I told my caddie as we teed off today, let's focus on every hole, 100 percent and don't let any bad shots distract us and it worked out really well."

Coceres, who narrowly missed the cut in both the BellSouth Classic and the Masters, came out on fire with a six-foot eagle putt on the second hole. He birdied the fifth hole after he chipped his third shot to nine feet.

At eight, Coceres missed a five-iron short of the green but holed out his chip shot for birdie and a front-nine 32. Coceres narrowly missed birdie putts at 10 and 11 as the ball stayed on the lip at both holes.

There was redemption for Coceres at the 12th when his birdie putt from 18 feet trickled into the cup for his third birdie in eight holes. He closed out his round with back-to-back birdies at the final two holes at Harbour Town Golf Links.

"I didn't want to be short by one at the cut, so I played more conservatively," said Coceres, referring to his strategy in the first two days of play. "I was very relaxed today because I knew the only way to move forward was to play well."

Mayfair carded a two-under 69 on Saturday, including 13 straight pars to open the round. He broke into red figures for the first time at 14 when he hit a six-iron 15 feet below the hole. His only other birdie of the round came at 17 after he knocked an eight-iron eight feet left of the flag.

At 18, Mayfair hit an eight-iron from 170 yards into the front bunker where he blasted out to six feet and converted the par save to stay two back of Singh.

"I love the position I'm in," said Mayfair, whose last win came in 1998 at the Buick Open. "Obviously Vijay is playing very well right now. He's going to be hard to catch but I get out a group ahead of him tomorrow and maybe get something rocking and rolling and see what happens."

Bernhard Langer (67), Glen Day (67) and Carl Paulson (71) share eighth place at minus-eight.

Davis Love III, a four-time champion of this event, is part of a tie for 11th at minus-seven. John Daly is also part of this group after a third-round 67.

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