Vijay Singh vaults into lead with 63

Forget college football: The best battle for No. 1 might be taking place on a golf course outside of Boston.

Vijay Singh -- No. 2 in the world golf rankings -- shot 63 on Saturday to move to 11-under and take the second-round lead in the Deutsche Bank Championship. With an eagle on the first hole sparking the best round of the tournament, he took the lead from top-ranked Tiger Woods with back-to-back-birdies on Nos. 12-13 and moved into position to take Woods' No. 1 ranking, too.

``It's not going to affect me one way or another if I overtake him,'' said Singh, who has already won five times this year, including the PGA Championship. ``Yeah, if I win this tournament, I'll be No. 1. Fine. But what would that change for me? I'm going to go out there next week and do it all over again.''

Billy Haas and John Rollins were tied with Woods at 9-under, two strokes back, with Ryan Palmer and Shigeki Maruyama at 8-under on the par-71, 7,415-yard TPC of Boston course.

Woods has held the No. 1 ranking for a record 264 consecutive weeks. Singh would take it over if he finishes higher than Woods or, if Woods finishes lower than a tie for seventh, Singh would come out of the weekend No. 1 no matter what.

``The No. 1 ranking takes care of itself just by winning tournaments,'' Woods said. ``If you win consistently, you don't have to worry about that.''

That's something Woods hasn't been able to do this year. His only win this year was at the match play championships. His last victory in stroke play was more than a year ago at the Western Open.

But he's not ready to give up the No. 1 ranking just yet.

Despite his so-called slump, Woods has finished in the top 10 in seven of his last nine tournaments; five of those were in the top five.

Playing as the unofficial host of a tournament that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, Woods shot 65 on Friday to share the first-round lead with Palmer. On Saturday, Woods was plodding along at even with 10 pars on the first 12 holes before he sank a nine-foot putt for birdie on No. 13.

On the 15th, he chipped in from the left of the green to drop to 8-under. But he fell back a stroke on the par-3 16th when he hit a 6 iron from the tee about 15 feet off the green into the first cut; he used his putter to avoid a catastrophe, but needed three tries to get it into the hole.

``I just tried to eliminate the high number there,'' Woods said. ``If I get cute with the sand wedge, don't get it on the green, you can make 5. So I took that out of the equation.''

Woods followed that with a pair of birdies, sinking a 58-foot putt on the 17th before finishing up with a 12-footer on the 18th.

``That was a little luck, wasn't it?'' he said of the 17th hole. ``I was just trying to two-putt and get out of there and try to go birdie 18. That was my mindset and I just happened to throw a depth charge up there and it went in.''

Singh sank his second shot of the day, a 91-yard sand wedge from the fairway to improve to 5-under. He birdied No. 2, a 553-yard dogleg par-5, after putting his approach shot eight feet from the cup, and made some more shots from the fairway on Nos. 4 and 7.

``What a start,'' he said. ``After a start like that, ... I had the green light to hit drivers and go at the pins and I did.''

On the par-3 eighth hole, he three-putted from 28 feet to fall back to 7-under. His second shots on the 10th and 12th left him 15-footers for another pair of birdies; on No. 13, his approach put him three feet from a birdie that move him to 10-under, passing Woods, who was in the clubhouse at 9-under.

Singh chipped in from 30 feet on No. 16 to move to 11 under. He gave the stroke back on No. 17 but picked it up again on the final hole after missing an eagle putt from 18 feet.

Divots: Defending champion Adam Scott shot 67 and is five strokes back. ... Haas, who won the 2004 Jack Nicklaus Award given to the nation's top collegiate golfer, is a Monday qualifier whose father, Jay, is on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He's made seven of eight cuts this year. ... Mark O'Meara, who was in second after one round, shot 74 on Saturday to fall to 2-under. ... David Duval made his first cut in 15 months.

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