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Defending champion Singh takes second-round lead at Bay Hill

15/03/2008

Vijay Singh has taken the lead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the halfway stage following a second round of fiver-under-par.

The Fijian is now on nine-under for the tournament and leads Sweden's Carl Peterson by two strokes. England's Lee Westwood also continued his return to form adding a 68 to his first-round 66 to share third place with Americans Jim Furyk and Ken Duke.

Singh began the day on the back nine and instantly made progress up the leaderboard with three successive birdies at the 12th, 13th and 14th holes.

He suffered a setback with a bogey on the first, as he had yesterday, but from then on he was in inspired form. The 45-year-old birdied the fourth hole and then claimed an eagle at the sixth with a chip from the edge of the green.

Singh has only just recovered from a bout of food poisoning he got at a tournament in India last week so the former Master champion is happy just to be playing again.

He said: "I hit the ball really good off the tee, gave myself a lot of birdie chances and also helped by chipping in twice as well.

"I'm not doing anything special, not doing too much wrong either, just cruising along."

Surprisingly, world number one Tiger Woods is still languishing in 20th place at the halfway stage.

Woods is trying to keep an unbeaten run going which stretches back to September last year but heads into the third round seven shots off the leader.