Singh copes well in high winds

High winds threatened to halt play in the second round of the £2.84 million Mercedes-Benz Championship but Vijay Singh breezed through to claim the lead.

Singh overcame the tough conditions to shoot 69 for an eight-under-par 138 total, one better than Trevor Immelman (68) and Will MacKenzie (70) and three in front of JB Holmes (68) and Chris Couch (70) at the Kapalua Plantation course on the island of Maui.

"When we made the turn, the ball was oscillating on the greens and just getting a little too difficult there. The wind was howling, must have been blowing at 40 mph," said the Fijian.

Singh did not do much wrong all day, making just one bogey, at the par-four fourth but he made amends by bouncing back with an eagle at the very next hole, where he hit a four-iron approach to 20 feet and drained the putt.

"I just played very consistent from there in, did not do too much wrong," he said. "I controlled my ball flight and just played solid golf. Controlling your ball flight is the key in conditions like today and yesterday.

"I missed three or four greens but that's understandable. I'm in control of my game, so looking forward to the weekend, (although) I would like to see it calm down a little bit.

Singh seemed in danger of surrendering his edge at the par-five 18th, where he pulled his drive into a hazard and had little choice but to incur a penalty stroke.

However, he hit a fine 280-yard third shot from the rough to the heart of the green and two-putted for a nice par.

MacKenzie parred the last as well, after a disappointing three-putt bogey at the 17th, where he got rattled by a slow play warning from an official.

"I didn't do anything real special but I didn't do anything bad," he said. "I kept the ball in play, hit a lot of greens, a lot of great little iron shots into the wind. This is a shot-maker's paradise right now."

Immelman, 27, who stamped himself as a rising star by finishing seventh on last year's PGA Tour money list to be named Rookie of the Year, also performed impressively in the conditions.

"I grew up playing in a lot of wind," said the native of Cape Town. "I did my time in Europe and got to experience a lot of the sort of weather we've experienced the first two days. Whether I'm good in it or not, I don't know, but I'm fairly used to it.

"The rhythm of my swing has really been the key to my play. Hopefully over the weekend I can just maintain that same rhythm."

Defending champion Stuart Appleby did not help himself in his quest to become just the fourth player in PGA Tour history to win the same event for four successive years; a 72 leaving him seven shots behind.

"I've got to shoot four or five under tomorrow," he said, lamenting his putting mediocrity.

"Just standing up is a difficult thing, let alone trying to take a putter back."