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Singh leads at windy Mercedes

Vijay Singh saved par at the final hole of the Mercedes-Benz Cham-pionship on Friday, completing a difficult day on the wind-whipped Kapalua Plantation course with a one-shot lead.

"When we made the turn, the ball was oscillating on the greens and just getting a little too difficult there," said Singh, who thought the conditions even warranted stopping play in the US PGA Tour's season-opening event.

"The wind was howling, must have been blowing at 40 miles per hour [ 64kph]," he said.

But Singh coped admirably. His only bogey of the day came at the par-four fourth, but he rebounded with an eagle at the par-five fifth, knocking a four-iron to 20 feet and holing the putt.

"I just played very consistently 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," he said. "I missed three or four greens, but that's understandable. I'm in control of my game, so I'm looking forward to the weekend. I would like to see it calm down a little bit."

Singh looked in danger of surrendering the lead when he drove into a hazard at the par-five 18th, taking a penalty stroke before finding the green with a booming 261m third shot.

He two-putted for par to finish with a 69, giving him an eight-under 138 and a one-shot lead over South Africa's Trevor Immelman and US player Will MacKenzie.

Immelman shot a 68. MacKenzie closed with a 70 for five-under to share second on 139.

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," he said.

Immelman, who stamped himself as a new star by finishing seventh on last year's money list, also performed well in the conditions.

"I grew up playing in a lot of wind," said the native of Cape Town, South Africa.

"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 am fairly used to it," he said.
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