Mark Wiebe will hear the pitter-patter of prominent feet and the constant whoosh of unrelenting wind as he takes a two-shot lead into today’s final round of the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship.
Wiebe followed up an opening-round 64 with a 3-under-par 69 Saturday. He is two up on Vijay Singh, who is making his Champions Tour debut this week at Kapolei Golf Club.
The World Golf Hall of Famer shot 66 — the day’s low round — the second time he teed it up with the seniors. Singh hit every fairway, missed just two greens and played the front nine in 4 under.
He seized second alone when he birdied the 14th and kept it with another at the 17th — both par 5s.
Singh is 6 under on the par 5s. Wiebe is 2 under, but has five birdies on the par 3s.
"The par 3s this week I’m playing nice, really well," Wiebe said. "I have no idea why. I’m hitting the ball solid for the most part and when the wind is blowing this hard you really need to focus on hitting it solid. Any mis-hits are going to get gobbled up by the wind."
Singh is one ahead of Corey Pavin (68) and Brian Henninger (69), both at 136.
Pavin, a two-time Hawaiian Open champ, has 10 consecutive rounds in the 60s and four straight top-three finishes.
Henninger is a rookie, which suddenly makes him dangerous. Rookies have won the last four senior stops — before Singh even took a swing on the tour.
The rest of the top 10 can also be termed the usual suspects.
Sandy Lyle (67), another World Golf Hall of Famer, birdied four of the last five to pull into a tie for fifth with John Cook (71), who won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai eight months ago.
Bernhard Langer, No. 2 on the money list, played the final five holes in 5 under to shoot 69. That put him into a tie for seventh with four others, including David Frost, No. 3 on the money list.
Kenny Perry is first on the money list, but seven bogeys on his first 13 holes Saturday has him far back.
Wiebe turned 56 last week. He has won four times on the Champions Tour, including this year’s Senior British Open, where he held off Langer in a five-hole playoff.
Singh’s first American win came in 1993, in a playoff with Wiebe. Singh would get 33 more PGA Tour victories — 22 after turning 40.
Two came here, at the 2007 Mercedes-Benz Championship on Maui and the 2005 Sony Open in Hawaii. He owns a home on the Big Island. Singh knows Hawaii and he knows wind.
"The wind is really tricky out here, you know," Singh said. "You can get lucky with the wind or not. You may get a big gust when you hit a good putt in the wind. I’m looking good, I feel good. I don’t know if I’m going to be nervous or excited tomorrow, but we’ll have to wait and see."
Wiebe has felt the wind’s wrath. Friday he spurned it. Saturday, he was 4 under through 12 holes, before the big breeze and the greens finally got to him.
"The wind I thought was blowing harder," Wiebe said. "Maybe not gusting as much but blowing harder. The course played harder, I thought. Of course everybody said that yesterday and I did too, I just got lucky. … It was a grind today."
He needed 17 putts on the back nine — five fewer than he took in the entire first round. Wiebe’s first bogey was a three-putt at the 13th.
"I almost putted it off the green," he admitted. "I had about a 25-foot putt and I knew it was fast, downwind, knew everything, hit my putt, didn’t think much of it and it went 15 feet by the hole."
He two-putted for birdie on the next hole, but lipped out a par putt on the 16th, then missed birdie putts inside 10 feet on the last two holes — badly.
"I had a great feel going, on the front nine especially with my putter," Wiebe said. "And although I made a really nice par putt on 16, 17 I had indecision so I can’t blame my stroke and 18 I just did not make a good putt. That’s very disappointing to end the day.
"On the other hand, I’m leading, so I’m OK with that."
He is winning and, with the wind howling at 20-25 mph, probably anybody in the top 20 has a shot today. That’s all these guys ask.
"We all play to have a shot at winning, all of us on this tour," Wiebe said. "This just happens to be my week that I have a shot.
"The wind can dust you, so it’s going to be tough. I doubt it’s going to lay down. I kind of hope that it does what it’s been doing. It’s a great challenge. Not just for the tournament, it’s a great challenge for yourself when you go play in conditions like this. It’s a great challenge to go out and try to win that battle. It’s hard but it’s fun. We’re sadistic that way."