Singh and Bjorn make early breakthrough
It took almost an hour, but Vijay Singh and Thomas Bjorn finally drew first blood in the two semi-finals of the World Match Play Championship.
Singh faced four-time winner Ernie Els for the fourth time in the last eight years and, with the South Africa holding a 2-1 head-to-head lead, they shared the first four holes.
Then Fiji's world number three hit a six-iron to 11 feet on the 191-yard third and went ahead.
Open champion Ben Curtis and Denmark's Bjorn also halved the first four holes, then Bjorn made a 15-footer at the next as they battled to keep alive their hopes of tomorrow's £1million first prize - the second biggest in golf.
Els is trying to match the record of five wins set by his compatriot Gary Player between 1965 and 1973 and equalled by Seve Ballesteros between 1981 and 1991.
The world number one made his debut in 1994 after capturing the US Open that year and was not beaten until Singh beat him in the 1997 final.
Els achieved his third win by beating Singh in the 1996 final and they also met in the semi-finals last year, with Els winning three and two.
Singh went two up with a 18-foot putt on the seventh, but Bjorn lost his lead over Curtis - the player who pipped him in the Open after he blew a three-shot lead with four to play - when driving into sand on the 354-yard sixth and bogeying the comparatively simple hole.
Els reduced his deficit to one thanks to a nine-iron to three feet on the ninth. He turned in a two-under-par 33 to Singh's 32 - and neither had hit a bogey yet.
Bjorn and Curtis, meanwhile, remained level after eight.
Singh restored his two-hole advantage straightaway, hitting a six-iron to three feet at the 184-yard 10th.
Curtis slipped up on the ninth, missing the green with a nine-iron and bogeying, and then Bjorn went two clear with a 21-foot putt on the next.
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