Singh’s Top-10 List Won’t Have This One

There’s one streaker who won’t be around this weekend at the Buick Invitational. That would be Vijay Singh, who swaddled himself in a one-over-par 73 Friday, spat a few words at a television interviewer, told his caddie to clean out his locker, then hunkered down in his hotel room to make flight plans and work out how he’d missed the cut.

Maybe it just wasn’t Vijay’s day. For Singh, a guy who had 12 consecutive top-10 finishes, had won three of his last nine events and had moved to No. 2 in the rankings, missing the cut wasn’t as much a stumble as it was a fall down the stairwell of a high rise.

It was the first cut Singh missed after making 25, beginning at last year’s Masters -- after he’d missed the cut at the Players Championship. Singh’s 73 Friday was his first round over par in 18 rounds this year.

Phil Mickelson would have been right there with Singh if he hadn’t birdied the last two holes for a 69, so that gave him a unique perspective on Singh’s misfortune.

“Well, I think we’re all a little surprised,” Mickelson said. “He finished top-10 in 12 straight, you don’t expect him to miss the cut. I think he had such a great run for such a long time, it’s bound to come to an end sometime. We’re surprised it happened here.”

What wasn’t surprising was that Singh took a pass on explaining what had happened, at least to the writers who had been treated to quite a different performance by Singh during a pre-tournament news conference when he wouldn’t stop talking.

Tiger Woods said a Singh-less tournament didn’t sound right to him:

“It does surprise me, considering that he’s playing so well.”

Just not Friday.

And so it went on a mostly cloudy day at Torrey Pines, where Stewart Cink shot 63 and took the second-round lead by two shots over Steve Flesch and a resurgent John Daly, where Mickelson missed his first 11 fairways and still made the cut, and where Woods overcame three bogeys in a five-hole stretch to post a 68.

Woods, the defending champion, is tied for 21st with 15 others. Mickelson, the three-time winner here who made the cut on the number, is tied for 70th at one-under 143. Singh’s totals of 71-73 -- 144 were streak-killers.

As far as streaks go, Woods continues to carry the heaviest lumber, as he now has made 116 consecutive cuts. Woods birdied three of his last five holes on the North course and pronounced himself in contention at five-under 139.

“It’s definitely reachable to win the tournament from there,” he said. “I don’t have too many guys to pass. It’s not too bad, going over to the hardest golf course. It can be done.”

First, though, he’ll have to get past Cink, whose nine-under 63 on the North course was the low round of the day. He played the last five holes in four under.

Cink hasn’t won a tournament in four years, but he’s halfway there, with two more rounds to be played on the South course, which at 7,568 yards is nearly 700 yards longer than the North.

There is a new Cink on display this year, he said, one uncluttered with the dirty dishes of anxiety. “I’ve discovered a new calmness and I really have been able to reduce my anxiety,” he said. “I was worried about every shot, worried about the cuts, worried about where I was finishing. [Now] I’m playing a game. I’m having a good time playing and I’m not too worried about where my shots are going. I’ll hit some bad shots. I’m ready to accept my shots wherever they go.”

The left-handed Flesch has gone back to using a belly putter, and that worked well enough for him to shoot a 68 on the South. Daly, who had a 66 on the South, found his success at the other end of the holes. Daly averaged 295.9 yards off the tee Friday and is averaging 305.5 yards a drive for two rounds. Daly hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since the 1995 British Open and had only one top-10 finish last year, but his popularity hasn’t dimmed.

Flesch and Daly were in the same group for the second round and the number of fans following them grew as the day wore on.

“I think people heard the hoopla when John hit it close a couple of times, and our gallery grew,” Flesch said. “And I assure you it wasn’t because of me.”

First-round leader Kevin Stadler shot a 74 on the South course and is five behind Cink.

Singh had hinted that he wouldn’t play the Nissan Open next week at Riviera if he didn’t play well at Torrey Pines, but he told a television reporter that he would show up at Riviera after going home to Florida and taking the weekend off. There haven’t been many of those for Singh recently.

Cink suggested that Singh might actually be relieved that his top-10 streak is done.

“Vijay is probably glad it’s over,” Cink said. “He can go back and focus on nothing but playing. I don’t know that it really led him to missing the cut or not, but golf is tough sometimes and even as well as Vijay has been playing, you can’t stay at the top forever.”

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SECOND-ROUND SCORES, D14