³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

"I feel like I'm throwing five, six, seven shots away on the greens," he said. "I don't feel like I'm playing as bad as I'm scoring. On the greens I missed a lot of ones that you don't even think about missing."

, meanwhile, is back with the short putter rather than the longer "belly" version. "I've been working with my short putter for a long time," the 46-year-old explained.

"I putt with a short putter at home more than a long one. I'm not confident enough to bring it out (in tournament play) but I did this week."

As for the ins and, more frequently these days, outs of his putting game, Singh said: "I could write a book on that."

In 2004, Singh won an astonishing nine tournaments as a 40-year-old but after knee surgery seven months ago the Fijian former world number one is now looking at his first winless year since 2001.

"I haven't been playing too well all year. This is a long course but you give yourself birdie chances if you hit it close," Singh said. Then, of course, it's all down to the putting.

The form of proves the exception to that rule. The 17-year-old, who is the youngest ever competitor at a PGA, had only 28 putts in his opening 74 but hit only half of the relatively generous fairways here.

Of course ,if you are having to chip and pitch into greens you will give yourself shorter and hopefully fewer putts. Ishikawa was Jay Townsend's outside tip for the title on 5 live.

when he held off Tiger Woods to win the PGA here at Hazeltine, his only major title.

A reflection of that feat was the popular American's pairing with , despite recent form that would otherwise make such a high profile draw unthinkable.

"I was having a nice, quiet three ball day out there - with about 30,000 people screaming their heads off. It was a blast," Beem quipped after a first round one-under-par 71.

Someone asked Beem what it was like to be playing with the world number one Woods and defending champion Harrington. "I thought they were playing with me!" he grinned.

"I think when you first see [the draw] you're like 'OK,' then you're like 'Oh, no,' then you are 'OK' and then you're 'oh, no!'"

"I think at the end of the day you just have to bring your 'A' game. You don't want to embarrass yourself."

Beem's other plan was the visit the "Rich Beem village" and indulge himself as the last man to win a championship here should. "I'm telling you baby, I'm going to go back there, get a little back rub, let them feed me a few grapes, kind of like back in the good ol' days," he said.

Plenty of Twitter action from the players here - some definitely trying to boost their own fan profile with the locals. Take this : "Some of the best crowds all year...Thousands of people and very polite and positive..I love it!!!"

Less likely to curry favour with the locals are .