Mercedes Open: Vijay Singh stands on the verge of finally winning the Mercedes-Benz Championship, PGA Tour's season opener, after a number of near victories. The 43-year-old was steady rather than spectacular in carding a three-under-par 70 on another extremely windy day in the third round.
That lifted him to an 11-under 208 total, three shots clear of Adam Scott (69) and Trevor Immelman (72) at Maui's Kapalua Plantation course.
Singh has posted top-10 finishes in his past seven starts in the tournament and he knows just about every nuance of the course built on the side of a mountain. He was not at the very peak of his game in the tough conditions but avoided making a bogey after the seventh hole, picking up five birdies in all as he putted well with his new mid-length belly putter.
"It was a little disappointing," he said. "The scoring was good but the ball-striking wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. It was wishy-washy, but putting is a great equaliser. I made a lot of three, four, five-footers. (Course knowledge) helped today. I just scrambled a lot."
Singh, however, was not getting carried away. "I'm going to go out there and try to play the best I can and if my best is good enough, that's good for me."
Immelman's long game was superb, but a couple of early three-putts seemed to sap his confidence on the greens. "It was frustrating on the greens," he said. "Obviously the two three-putts early didn't help me."
Scott charged into contention with five birdies in his final seven holes. He will play alongside Singh today, a rematch of the final round at the Tour Championship in November when Scott prevailed. Fellow Australian Stuart Appleby's quest to become the fourth player in US Tour history to win the same event four successive years all but ended when he shot 72 to slip nine shots behind Singh.
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