Vijay Singh overtakes Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods for BMW lead

Vijay Singh shot a six-under-par 66 to forge a one-stroke lead over Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore after two rounds in the BMW Championship on Friday at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind.

The 49-year-old from Fiji is at 13-under 131 for the tournament, which is the second-to-last FedEx Cup playoff event.

After McIlroy (68), Woods (67) and Moore (66) at 132 are Bo Van Pelt (69), Lee Westwood (65) and Seung-Yul Noh (66) at 133. Another 14 players are within five strokes of the lead, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington, Adam Scott and Bill Haas, who had the day’s best round with a 64.

The star-studded event features only 70 players. Next week the top 30 advance to the Tour Championship in Atlanta, where the FedEx Cup winner will be crowned and receive $10 million.

Singh, a former No. 1 player in the world, has returned to form recently in spurts.

“I’ve been playing well for two days for awhile now, but I need four days of good playing,” he told reporters Friday. “Sooner or later, I think four days is going to happen. And hopefully, it starts this week.

“I guess I want it so bad that I get in my own way. So I just have to get out of my own way and just play. Last weekend I played better, but I didn’t play well the first two days. Hopefully, I can go out there and just shoot two comfortable rounds this week.”

Woods, who said it’s unusual to see someone at 13 under after two rounds on a Pete Dye-designed course, said he struggled despite shooting under par again.

“I didn’t have it with my swing,” said Woods, who like McIlroy is seeking a fourth PGA Tour victory this year. “Just kind of fighting it around here. You look up at the scores, the guys are just running off. I just wanted to get to double digits today. I felt like that would have been a good accomplishment the way I was hitting the golf ball, and happy to get a couple of more.”

McIlroy, a two-time major winner, said he struggled as well, at least compared to Thursday when he shot a 64.

“I put myself in a great position going into the weekend,” said the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland. “The round wasn’t quite as good as it was yesterday. I didn’t hit the ball quite as well. But I still managed to get around in four-under par. I’m very pleased about that. I just need to try and find a little more consistency. It wasn’t that bad out there, but just a couple of missed tee shots and a couple of missed iron shots.”

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