Singh on song in Buick Open
30/07/2004 - 07:14:07Birdies were plentiful in the first round of the Buick Open and no-one took more advantage than Fiji’s Vijay Singh.
Singh signed for a nine-under-par 63 after playing the back nine in 29 and grabbed a one-shot lead over journeyman Olin Browne at the Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club.
Bidding for his fourth win of the year, Singh played the first eight holes in one under but a birdie on the ninth started a string in which he played the next seven holes in seven under.
During the blistering stretch, he had five birdies, an eagle and a par. Singh added a final birdie – his eighth of the day – on the 18th.
Browne, seeking his first win since the 1999 Colonial, also recorded eight birdies in a bogey-free round.
Singh, who captured this tournament in 1997, and Browne top a crowded leaderboard as 30 players are within five shots of the lead.
A birdie at the 12th began a stretch in which Singh played four holes in five under. He holed a five-footer for eagle on the par-five 13th, and then added birdies on the 14th and 15th. Singh’s only blemish was a bogey on the par-three third hole.
Mike Grob is alone in third on 65, one shot ahead of five players, including defending champion Jim Furyk, who is playing in only his third tournament after missing five months due to wrist surgery.
Furyk played the first 14 holes in seven under, but could not get any lower and lost a stroke with a bogey on the par-three 17th.
Tiger Woods, seeking his first win of the year in a strokeplay event, was one of seven players to shoot 67. Woods scrambled to a bogey-free round, hitting just eight of 14 fairways.
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