"Crazy things happen," he said. "I broke it yesterday, if that's the right way to put it. Sometimes, if you don't like a putter, if I get rid of it, I don't have to use it anymore. I have other putters that were exactly like it."

Singh's replacement putter certainly worked Saturday as he compiled six birdies to shoot the week's best score, a 5-under-par 65 to vault into a tie for second at East Lake, three shots behind leader Adam Scott.

In the absence of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who weren't sufficiently motivated to turn up this week, Singh is one of the biggest names in the field.

"Who's not here?" Singh said, smiling. "I'm here, Ernie (Els) is here, Furyk is here, the golf tournament is here. I didn't come to beat Tiger. I came here to win."

Later, he admitted that the absence of Woods, particularly, was not good for the tournament.

"Every time Tiger doesn't play a tournament it hurts the tournament, because of his name and how good he is," Singh said.

Singh's best friend on tour is Tom Pernice, who earlier in the week slammed Woods for not playing the tournament, and also ripped PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem for, in his opinion, not consulting the players enough in the running of the tour.

But Singh, who has never worried much about the politics of the game, doesn't seem to particularly share Pernice's opinions.

"I'm pretty neutral," he said. "I'm not on the same side as Tim or Tom. I just feel whatever happens should be discussed, like Tom said. "The administration part of it, leave it to the guys that are handling it. We just have to go out and focus on playing, that's our job."