Fiji’s Vijay Singh had one bad swing on Friday, but he held on to slim one-shot lead over South Africa’s Trevor Immelman and American Will MacKenzie at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Kapalua, Hawaii.

Singh pulled his tee shot into the native grasses at the par-5 final hole in round two, but managed a remarkable recovery, despite taking a penalty stroke, to escape with a par and finish the day on eight-under-par with a second consecutive four-under 69.

Immelman, buoyed by a tremendous performance in the Sunshine Tour’s SAA Open Championship in December, fired to joint second in the PGA Tour opener at the Plantation Course with a shared low round of the day.

But despite the rain, whipping wind and eventual sunshine, Immelman, birdied two of his last three holes to sign for a five-under-par 68 on a day when the scoring average was over par (73.394).

The PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for 2006 is chasing his second title in the USA, having sealed two runner-up finishes with victory at the Cialis Western Open, where he outplayed world number one, Tiger Woods.

The start of the second round was delayed 1 hour 20 minutes because of a light rain that began overnight and didn't stop until an hour after the round began.

MacKenzie made his lone bogey on the 17th after being put on the clock and rushing a putt, and he had a chance to tie Singh until missing a 10-foot birdie on the final hole, settling for a 70.

2006 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

The Rookie of the Year race was a tight one between Trevor Immelman and Camilo Villegas. The nod here goes to Immelman, mostly due to his win at the Western Open.

Immelman missed fewer cuts - five to Villegas' 11 - had one more top-five finish, four more top-10s and earned over $2.1 million more than the young Colombian.

Immelman got off to a really slow start with five missed cuts in his first nine starts. However, he didn't miss a cut the rest of the year. In his final 15 PGA Tour starts in '06, Immelman finished outside the top 20 just three times.

In May, he collected back-to-back second-place finishes, including a playoff loss to Jim Furyk at the Wachovia Championship. Immelman's best finish in a major came at the U.S. Open, where he tied for 21st.

He broke into the winners circle in July at the Western Open, an event dominated recently by Tiger Woods. Immelman closed with a four-under 67 to hold off Mathew Goggin and Woods by two strokes.

He ended the season as the only rookie in the field at the Tour Championship.

Immelman closed with three straight rounds in the 60s to finish in a tie for fifth and earn $266,000, which gave him over $3.8 million for the season, putting him seventh on the money list.