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Associated Press 21y

Not even cell phones stop Els

SINGAPORE -- Ernie Els overcame jet lag, searing tropical
heat and distracting cell phones to take the second-round lead
Friday in the Singapore Masters.

The South African star, coming off consecutive PGA Tour
victories in Hawaii, completed the rain-delayed first round with a
3-under 69 and shot a 67 in the second for an 8-under 136 total.

The temperature hovered around 90 degrees, with relative
humidity averaging 77.5 percent.

"You just keep grinding away and the heat gets to you after a
little while, so I'll go relax and hopefully get over the jet
lag,'' Els said.

With a huge gallery following him, Els complained about the
number of cell phones that rang during play.

"They got some weird tunes over here,'' he said. "We're out
here to play golf and we're trying to take it quite seriously. It's
a problem wherever you go -- the States, Europe. People like having
cell phones with them and have it on.''

He swept the PGA Tour's Hawaii events the last two weeks to
become the first player since Steve Jones in 1989 to win the tour's
first two tournaments of the year.

"It's a new week. Obviously, this week I have to deal with the
jet lag,'' he said. "But I'm striking the ball as well as I have
been the last two weeks.''

Defending champion Arjun Atwal of India was a stroke back along
with countryman Jeev Milkha Singh and Scotland's Simon Yates. Atwal
finished off a 67 and shot a 70 in the second round. Singh shot a
71 in the second round, and Yates had a 69.

Darkness suspended play with 21 players left on the course. They
will complete the round Saturday morning.

Els, No. 2 behind Tiger Woods in the world rankings, completed
his opening round in the morning before heading out a half-hour
later to begin his second on a hot, cloudless day at the Laguna
National Golf and Country Club.

The South African began play Friday with his approach shot on
the 445-yard, par-4 16th. After his last shot Thursday -- a 2-iron
tee shot that sailed 250 yards to the middle of the fairway -- the
Big Easy failed to capitalize and finished with a par.

He then dropped two strokes after hitting into the water on the
202-yard, par-3 17th.

"Seventeen was my first full shot I had to play,'' Els said.
"I hit a decent shot, just came off the 6-iron a bit, came up
about 2 feet short and didn't carry the water.''

Els got off to good start in the second round with an eagle on
the par-5, 547-yard 11th -- his second hole of the round. He hit a
4-iron 220 yards to set up a 20-foot pitch.

He failed the capitalize on birdie chances on his last three
holes, with the longest of them 11 feet from the cup.

"I've hit a lot of greens this week. I'm just not getting the
speed of them and that is quite frustrating,'' Els said.

China's Liang Wen-Chong became the first player to be
disqualified from a PGA European Tour event for using a
non-conforming driver.

"Liang Wen-Chong was found to be using a driver, a Mizuno 300
SII, that contravened the new rules, which were brought into effect
on Jan. 1, 2003. He was unaware of the contravention,'' tournament
organizers said in announcing the disqualification.

Liang's driver produces a spring-like effect off the clubface
that exceeds standards recently adopted by the Royal & Ancient Golf
Club of St. Andrews. The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA
European Tour and Asian PGA Tour.

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