Cink leads as Singh misses cut

World number two Vijay Singh missed the cut for the first time since the Players Championship last March as Stewart Cink grabbed the second-round lead at the $4.5 million Buick Invitational on Friday.

Fijian Singh, who arrived here after a string of 12 successive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, the longest since Jack Nicklaus had 14 in a row in 1977, returned a one-over 73 for a level-par total of 144 at Torrey Pines Golf Club.

Cink, by contrast, fired a sizzling nine-under 63 to open up a two-shot lead on 133, 11 under. John Daly (66) and Steve Flesch (68) shared second place on 135 with Bo Van Pelt a further stroke adrift on 136.

Defending champion and world number one Tiger Woods was on 139 while Phil Mickelson finished birdie-birdie to squeeze past the cut mark on 143.

Stephen Leaney of Australia, Patrick Sheehan, Keiichiro Fukabori of Japan, Billy Mayfair and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton shared fifth position on 137.

Since the Players Championship, Singh has had four wins, including last Sunday's Pebble Beach triumph, and a total of 20 top-10 finishes.

"I played OK," Singh told reporters. "I drove the ball beautifully today, I think I missed two fairways, I just couldn't make any putts."

The 40-year-old Fijian, who looks like the biggest threat to Woods's standing as world number one, will now go home and visit his family before returning to the tour in Los Angeles next week.

"I'll probably start a streak next week," Singh said.

In the second round here, he played the more difficult of the two courses being used at Torrey Pines, the South.

Singh took 30 putts on Friday, eight more than Cink, who soared to the top of the leaderboard with a flawless nine-birdie round on the North course.

"It was a great round," Cink said. "The ball was going in the hole, and they were going in the fairway off the tee."

Cink has not won on the tour since the 2000 MCI Classic. He hit a low point two years later when he finished 73rd on the money list.

"I was having troubles, just hitting badly off the tee, putting terrible," he said. "I basically just faced myself in the mirror and said, 'what are you doing, why are you worried so much about what you're doing?

"I kind of just took a big step back and looked at the whole picture and realised I was just being way too hard on myself."

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