Mickelson, Singh Buzz the Leaders

A tournament supposedly short on a certain marquee quality -- no Tiger, no Ernie, no buzz -- the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am indeed had all the glow of a 40-watt bulb, until the clouds rolled in Friday afternoon and a certain star-power couple made their presence known.

Neither Vijay Singh nor Phil Mickelson is leading this $5.3-million tournament, but they probably feel they’re close enough to the $936,000 winner’s share that they might to be able to start writing checks on it.

The way things are going these days, it looks as if Singh could roll out of bed, play in his pajamas and contend for a title. Shooting for his 12th consecutive top-10 finish, Singh didn’t even make a sweat ring on his visor.

He followed his first-round 67 with a 68 at Spyglass Hill and is one shot off the lead held by 26-year-old Luke Donald, who scorched Pebble Beach with a seven-under 65.

Singh said he wished he could say there was no luck involved, but he couldn’t.

“Every putt outside of six feet is a hit and hope,” he said. “You just do the best stroke you like, keep your line and hope it goes in. It’s good to see it going in.”

Then there is Mickelson, who is becoming an almost eerie model of consistency. He had no bogeys, hit 12 of 14 fairways and turned in his second 68 in two days, this one at Spyglass, and climbed to within two shots of Donald.

“I want to get in contention on Sunday, that’s what I really enjoy,” Mickelson said. “It seems like it’s a lot easier to do that when you are not fighting for par from the jungle all the time.”

Only one thing spoiled Donald’s day -- a bogey at the par-five 18th, where he found a fairway bunker off the tee and wound up three-putting. But Donald didn’t dwell on the negative because that isn’t what he learned during the off-season when he worked with sports psychologist Jim Fannin.

“He’s made me believe in myself a little bit,” said Donald, who won one tournament in 2002 after an All-American career at Northwestern but slumped to 89th on the money list last year.

“I think coming out of college I was one of the best college players in the nation for four years and coming out here and getting beaten every week by a lot of good players can destroy your self-confidence. I just needed someone to tell me that I really am as good as I can be.”

Donald, who earned a degree in art theory and practice at Northwestern, had a near picture-perfect round. All four birdie putts he made on his front side were less than 10 feet. He had four more birdies on the back, including a long putt from the fringe on the par-three 17th.

“I feel in control of my game right now,” he said. “It always seems easy when you make birdies all the time.”

As for the other guys chasing Donald, who knows how good they can be? Or who they are?

After Luke, there is Duke, as in Ken Duke, a 35-year-old qualifying school grad who has made a living on the Canadian Tour, Asian Tour, South American Tour and Nationwide Tour. Duke has been more places than lost luggage.

“No one knows who I am,” he said after his 68 at Pebble Beach.

Duke is at nine-under 135 and tied with J.J. Henry, Tom Pernice Jr. and Singh. Mickelson is one shot behind that group, tied with Arron Oberholser and Robert Gamez.

Pernice would have had the lead by himself, but he bogeyed the last two holes at Spyglass when he drove into a bunker and then drove into the rough, playing into the wind on both holes.

Afterward, Pernice had an explanation for what went wrong.

“If you hit bad shots, you are going to make some bogeys.”

At least Pernice is an established player with two victories in 13 years on the PGA Tour. This is only the 10th PGA Tour event in Duke’s career. The 35-year-old from Florida had never seen Pebble Beach until he played two practice rounds this week. Even as he kept grinding for 10 years to reach the tour, Duke said he never thought he’d fail.

“I knew I was going to keep trying,” he said. “I told my wife that if I didn’t think I could make it, I would stop playing. I’m not just going to be one of these guys hanging on, hanging on. Things worked out the right way.”

Things didn’t work out well for defending champion Davis Love III, who was three under after three holes but wound up with a 72 at Pebble Beach. At three-over 147, he is in danger of missing the cut today. The last defending champion here to miss the cut the next year was Love, in 2002.