PINE MOUNTAIN, Ga., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Vijay Singh, who has earned more than $3 million this year without winning a title, carded an 8-under-par 64 on Thursday to share the first-round lead with Geoff Ogilvy at the Buick Challenge.
Fourth on the money list with $3,250,429, Singh has 13 top-10 finishes, including runner-ups at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and The Players Championship. The Fiji native has not finished first on the PGA Tour since capturing The Masters last year, but did win twice early this season on the international portion of the European Tour.
Ogilvy earned a spot on the tour at Qualifying School last fall and is 92nd on the money list with $525,338. He has just two top-10 finishes, with his best performance a tie for second at the Honda Classic in May.
Joel Edwards, Sweden's Per-Ulrik Johansson, Neal Lancaster, Mike Sposa and Danny Ellis were tied for third at 7-under 65 at the Callaway Gardens Resort.
Former Masters champion Mark O'Meara and Argentine rookie Jose Coceres, the winner at last week's National Car Rental Classic, were at 66.
Coceres is trying to crash the top 30 on the money list and qualify for next week's Tour Championship in Houston. His victory last week allowed him to jump from 56th to 33rd.
Just $92,107 separates Coceres from Steve Stricker, who is 29th with $1,588,229. Kenny Perry is 30th, followed by JesperParnevik of Sweden and Kevin Sutherland.
With a first prize of $612,000 at stake, several other players are on the bubble this week, including Steve Lowery (27th) and Stewart Cink (28th).
A similar scenario awaits players farther down the money list, where the top 125 will gain PGA Tour playing privileges for 2002. Players not in Houston next week will compete in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic in Madison, Miss., the final official PGA event of the year.
Defending champion David Duval carded a 5-under 67 and was tied for 10th.
