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| Trevor Immelman |
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Trevor Immelman is quite happy to stay in the shadows at St Andrews - as long as he stays on the leaderboard. And Vijay Singh feels pretty much the same.
"In most groups I tend to be the anonymous person," said the young South African after adding a 70 to his opening 68 for a 6-under par halfway total that put him into the early lead in the clubhouse with World No 2 Vijay Singh.
The big Fijian, shrugging off the seemingly overpowering dominance of main rival Tiger Woods, moved up into the tie with a 2nd consecutive 69 and says he honestly believes he has never had a better chance of winning the Open.
The two were tied with overnight leader Tiger Woods, still sitting on his first-round score of six-under at the opening hole and while Singh is aware that changing weather patterns may favour the afternoon starters, Woods especially, he was not overly concerned.
"If he goes round here and shoots 9-under then no-one will match him, but I'm not worried about Tiger," said Singh, who is halfway to a career grand slam with two US PGA titles and one Masters green jacket.
"I'm going out there to play my own game at the weekend," he said emphatically
"I have played a lot of practice rounds here and in the Dunhill Links so I'm very familiar with the golf course.
"If I'm going to win an Open Championship, it is probably going to be on this golf course rather than any other but you still have got to go out there and make the shots.
"It would be nice to get it (career grand slam) - not many people have made it - and it is probably the hardest thing to do, but it is at the back of my mind.
"Right now I'm playing well, I'm very patient and I'm just going to go out there [tomorrow] and play the golf course."
Immelman meanwhile has no problem being surrounded with high profile stars as he was in the first two rounds - and might be in the next two.
"I've been hanging around the top 50 mark in the world rankings so I'm not going to be a star in many groups they put together here."
Immelman, playing in his 4th Open, partnered Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter on the first two days and beat them by two and three shots respectively.
Yet even as Immelman, whose father is the commissioner of the South African Sunshine Tour, was in the process of setting Friday's clubhouse target for the later starters, most eyes were turned away to focus on Jack Nicklaus preparing to tee off in what was expected to be his last 18 holes in an Open Championship.
"To come and play the Open championship at the Home of Golf is spectacular in itself.
"But with it being Mr Nicklaus' final Open or maybe even final competitive tournament, that's extremely special.
"And obviously we've got a guy in Tiger Woods who is chasing Jack's record. So there's so many different scenarios going on here.
"And just looking further down the field I had Tony Jacklin playing behind me and he's obviously come here to play this week (for the final time). So there's a lot of unbelievable stories unfolding."
Immelman, a runner-up in the British Amateur in 1996, failed to qualify for the US Open last month, but led the European Open on the first day two weeks ago and has three European titles to his name including a South African Open.
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