Singh on-song after 18 holes at Wentworth

Click to enlarge photo

By Jon Bramley

VIRGINIA WATER, England (Reuters) - World number three Vijay Singh shaped up for a second round showdown with U.S. PGA champion Shaun Micheel after taking a firm grip on his opening match in the World Match Play Championship on Thursday.

The big Fijian reached the halfway stage of his scheduled 36-hole match with German Alex Cejka six holes up after a run of three birdies in the first four holes gave him the early advantage.

The pick of those was on the short second where he rolled in a 36-footer for a birdie two, an early signal that he would not struggle on greens which are slicker than usual following a dry English summer.

He turned three up and doubled his advantage after 18 holes with two closing birdies at the long 17th and 18th while Cejka could only par them.

Singh, a former U.S PGA and Masters champion, won the title in 1997 having lost the previous year's final to Els.

In other first round matches after 18 holes, American Chad Campbell led Swede Fredrik Jacobsen five-up, Thomas Bjorn of Denmark trailed another U.S. player Len Mattiace by three holes and Australian Stephen Leaney was all square with South Africa's Tim Clark.

The leading four seeds, holder Ernie Els, Micheel, British Open champion Ben Curtis and U.S. Masters holder Mike Weir, will open their challenge on Friday.

The 12-strong field are playing for the biggest prize in European golf history of 1.0 million pounds ($1.67 million).

But the new qualifying criteria for the 39-year-old event which is based chiefly on performance in golf's four majors has failed to produce the big-name field organisers had hoped.

Matchplay golf, unlike usual strokeplay tournament competition, is decided on holes won against a single opponent rather than overall score over a round.

Email this article to your friend -  View most popular