World number one Tiger Woods joined four opponents in first place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after a four-under-par round of 66 on Saturday. Woods, looking for his ninth win in 10 tournaments, began the day seven shots off the lead but ended on six-under-par with in-form Sean O'Hair, winner at Tampa Bay last week, who fired the best round of the tournament with his seven-under 63. Bart Bryant produced his third consecutive two-under 68 to join the leading pack along with Bubba Watson and overnight leader and defending champion Vijay Singh. Singh, who began the day on nine-under, had an eventful round with two bogeys and a double bogey inside his first seven holes but he recovered slightly to finish with a three-over 73. The Fijian, who began the day on nine-under, had an eventful round with three bogeys and a double bogey inside his first eight holes but he recovered slightly to finish with a three-over 73 and a place at the top of the leaderboard. Singh's topsy-turvy round was summed up by his performance on the par-four 16th. Like a number of players he found water with his drive toward the green but after his drop he pitched in magnificently from the edge of the lake to save par. But, once again, the outcome of this contest is in the hands of Woods. A four-time winner, he had struggled with his putting on Friday, frequently ending short. But he was back to his clinical self with six birdies in difficult conditions with gusty winds, the highlights being two superb fairway shots for birdies on the tricky 15th and 16th, both par fours. “I'm back in the tournament. It is nice to have go out there and play a good round of golf and win the tournament instead of having to play a great round of golf to hopefully get myself back in the mix,” Woods told reporters. Hunter Mahan was a shot behind the leaders and then five players, including Nick Watney who had led before a quadruple bogey on the 16th and Britain's Lee Westwood, were two off the lead on four-under.McDowell wins playoff In South Korea, Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell birdied the third sudden-death playoff hole against India's Jeev Milkha Singh to win the $2.9-million Ballantine's Championship on Sunday. Victory in the first European Tour-sanctioned event to be played in South Korea put McDowell third in the Order of Merit and boosted his chances of making the European team for September's Ryder Cup in Valhalla. He and Singh, who began the day tied for the lead, shot six-under-par 66s in a pulsating duel to finish on 24-under 264 after four rounds on the resort island of Jeju. Singh had led by three strokes on the front nine but McDowell caught up by sinking a five-foot birdie putt on the par-four 15th. The Indian regained the edge at 16 only to bogey the 17th. McDowell had a long putt to win in regulation on 18 before the pair returned to the final hole three times in the playoff. McDowell, who had not led all day, clinched victory at the third attempt, tapping in after Singh missed a five-foot birdie putt following superb approach shots from both players. Ireland's Paul McGinley was third, while British Open champion Padraig Hamilton had a 74, finishing in a tie for 14th at 10 under par, 14 strokes behind McDowell and Singh.Oh seizes lead South Korean Oh Ji-young fired a five-under-par 67 in Mexico City Saturday to seize a two-stroke lead after the second round of the 1.3 million-dollar LPGA MasterCard Classic. Oh's bogey-free round left her on nine-under par 135 after 36 holes in the 54-hole event, two strokes ahead of Taiwan's Ya-Ni Tseng and four strokes atop Sweden's Eva Dahllof with Korean Na Yeon Choi and American Jill McGill on 140. Oh hit wedge shots from more than 100 yards to set up birdies at the 13th and 15th holes and dropped a 9-iron shot from 125 yards just two feet from the cup at the 16th to highlight her round. Winless in this event in three attempts, world number one Lorena Ochoa bounced back from an opening 76 with a 70 but was still 11 strokes off the pace in her second outing of the season. She won two weeks ago at Singapore. __
