| Atlanta,
Georgia, 30th October 1998
- Vijay Singh experienced the best and the worst that East Lake Golf Club
had to offer today. When his wild ride was over, he was right back where he started
-- atop the leaderboard in the Tour Championship. One
day after his course-record 63, Singh recovered from a disastrous start with birdies
on six of the last 13 holes for an even-par 70 that put him at 7-under 133 and
gave him a two-stroke lead over Jim Furyk. "What
a comeback by Vijay," said Tom Lehman, four strokes off the lead after a
71. "It just shows that if you're not hitting it quite right, you can make
big numbers. And if you're hitting good shots, you can make birdies." Singh
did a little of both on a day in which the pendulum swung wildly in both directions.
When he started
the second round on another sunny afternoon with slightly stronger wind, he was
three strokes clear of the field. By the time he walked off the fourth green,
he was 5-over for the day and his name wasn't even on the first two pages of the
electronic scoreboard. "That
wasn't the way I wanted to start," Singh said. "But I hung in there.
The first three holes wasn't the end for me. I sorted it out along the way."
That in itself
was almost as gratifying as his first-round 63. With wind picking up and the greens
drying, East Lake played tougher than the first round. Only five players managed
to break par for the day, and only four were still under par through 36 holes.
Furyk, coming
off a victory two weeks ago in the Las Vegas Invitational and the only player
in the field with a chance of surpassing David Duval atop the money list, had
the only card without a bogey -- a 2-under 68 that left him at 135. Hal
Sutton bogeyed the 18th from the rough for a round of 67 -- tied with Fred Couples
for the lowest of the day -- and was three strokes back at 136. Six
players were at even-par 140, including Couples and Justin Leonard. Duval,
the defending champion, missed three putts inside three feet but still shot a
69 for 144. Last in the field of the top 30 money-winners on the PGA Tour was
Tiger Woods, who shot a 76 for 11-over 151 and still hasn't made a birdie on East
Lake. "I'm
not sure this course favors anyone," Furyk said. Couples
was headed for a round of 65 that would have put him right in the thick of it
for the weekend. But he three-putted from a mile on the 17th, and failed to save
par from the bunker on No. 18. "I
scored better," Couples said with a shrug. "It's still hard. If you
miss a fairway, you're probably going to make bogey. And if you hit the fairway,
some of the holes are still no bargain. It's going to be four hard days."
Singh packed
the drama of 72 holes into one afternoon. After
a bogey on No. 1 and a 5-foot putt to save par on the second hole, he dropped
off the map with a triple-bogey 7 on the third hole that started when his approach
found the back of a bunker. "Someone
didn't rake the bunker very well," he said. He
tried to punch it out, and knocked it clear over the green by a good 20 yards.
His chip came up short into more rough, then he chopped that out to eight feet
and two-putted. After a bogey on the fourth, he suddenly found himself two strokes
out of the lead. "I
almost lost the tournament today," Singh said. "But I kept my head today.
I told my caddie, `Let's just get back to par for the day.' That's what I'm most
pleased about." Furyk,
Sutton and Lehman all had at least a share of the lead at one point Friday, but
Singh never lost his confidence. "You're
not going to lose your golf swing in a day," he said. "I really hit
it good coming down the stretch." And
it showed. Singh went from slumping his shoulders and dropping his club when the
ball sailed off its line to staring it down as it stopped near the flagstick.
He got consecutive birdies with wedges to eight feet on the 12th and 13th to get
back to 5-under, then added two more. He
drove into the rough on No. 16, a 481-yard par-4 that plays downhill but into
the wind. He caught a decent lie and ripped an 8-iron that bounded onto the green
and stopped 15 feet away for his sixth birdie of the day. "My
game came back, and I gained some confidence," Singh said. More
importantly, he regained the lead. | 
