Singh Finds Himself in Familiar Territory

What you can count on in golf tournaments: birdies, bogeys, pars, Vijay. Lots of Vijay.

“I think we’re about ready to take up a collection and send him on a paid vacation,” Scott McCarron said.

He’s right, because this Vijay Singh thing is starting to get monotonous. They throw a golf tournament and Singh is in contention. It’s happening again this weekend at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where Singh shot a 68 Saturday and is tied for the lead with Arron Oberholser as they head into today’s final round.

Besides the $936,000 at stake for the winner, there’s some serious momentum at stake for Singh, who has been humming along on an extended joyride for a while now. Looking for his 12th consecutive top-10 finish -- only two behind Jack Nicklaus’ 27-year-old record -- Singh has been out of the first 10 at only one tournament since he was second at the British Open.

What’s more, he’s 143 under par since his streak began at the NEC in August, his scoring average is 67.936 and he has won $4.06 million. He just isn’t sure what it is that he’s in right now.

“I don’t know if it’s a zone, you know, if there is one, I want to find it,” Singh said.

With two wins, two seconds and a tie for third in his top-10 streak, Singh says it’s a matter of doing the right things.

“A lot of people go through years and not have a top 10,” he said. “I feel like it’s part of the way I’ve been playing. I’m not really thinking about teeing it up and finishing top 10.”

Maybe that’s the key. Singh bogeyed the first two holes, then bagged seven birdies in a 12-hole span and finished deadlocked with Oberholser, a 29-year-old second-year pro who tamed tough Spyglass Hill with a five-under 67. Singh and Oberholser are at 13-under 203, three shots ahead of Phillip Price, Luke Donald and Jeff Maggert, and four shots ahead of Phil Mickelson.

For Oberholser, who grew up in San Mateo, about 90 minutes from here, his pairing with Singh will be the first time he will have played in the last group on Sunday. He says he will be ready, if not completely relaxed.

“I’ll be nervous, come on,” he said. “Anybody who says they’re not nervous, playing with the No. 2 player in the world, playing for the first time in the final group of a PGA Tour event, they don’t have a pulse.”

Oberholser, the only player in the field who did not have a bogey Saturday, said there shouldn’t be any pressure.

“I don’t think anybody expects me to win, except for me. I feel like I belong out here. I think when my game is on, I can compete with the best players in the world.”

Mickelson started his back nine at Pebble with a one-shot lead and finished it four shots behind. He blamed an inability to get the ball close to the hole, which is what happened at the 10th, where he missed a 10-footer after coming out of a bunker, and made bogey. He was in another predicament at the 17th when he left his tee shot short and wound up three-putting for a bogey.

“Pebble can eat you up if you’re not careful,” Mickelson said after his 71. “I think I did OK. I’m not too far off.

“You’ve got to get lucky, you’ve got to make some putts, and that’s not easy to do out here.”

What he has to do, Mickelson figures, is to shoot as much as eight under today to come back.

“It’s not easy to do, but it’s possible.”

He knows that because that’s how Davis Love III won here in 2001, when he came back to beat Mickelson with a closing 63. Love won’t figure in anything like a repeat this time. The defending champion shot 70 Saturday but still missed the cut.

Singh couldn’t count on a quick start, not after he found a bunker at the first and two-putted for bogey. He could have had much worse than a bogey at the second hole when he hit his second-shot three-wood out of bounds, holing an eight-foot putt for bogey.

From the 11th through the 16th, Singh had five birdies on Pebble’s now notorious bumpy greens, including a 20-foot putt at the 14th, a 15-footer at the 15th and a 25-footer at the 16th.

Singh described the action his golf ball took on his putts: “Bumping and rolling.”

If Singh is a known quantity, Oberholser is far from that. The San Jose State graduate has had wrist and back problems and worked his way onto the PGA Tour after playing the Canadian Tour and the Nationwide Tour.

He won $619,000 last year, 103rd on the money list, and tied for fourth at the Buick Invitational. Oberholser said he wasn’t sure whether his time had come to move up to a different class.

“We’ll find out” today, he said.