Vijay Singh leads in Singapore Open

Fiji's Vijay Singh birdied the final hole to snatch a one-stroke lead after the rain-interrupted third round of the Singapore Masters on Saturday.

He shot a 68, taking him to 18 under for the tournament, to lead from Frankie Minoza of the Philippines who went round in 71.

The co-sanctioned event was halted for three hours in mid afternoon because of lightning and torrential rain with Singh having just eagled the 13th to join Minoza in the lead.

Minoza had started the day with a two-stroke lead over Singh, courtesy of a sizzling 61 on day two to set an Asian Tour low and a Singapore Island Country Club course record.

But he could not repeat the fireworks in the third round and handed Singh the outright lead with a last hole bogey.

Sweden's Mikael Lundberg and Englishman Warren Bennett finished two shots off the pace with Colin Montgomerie a shot further back after birdieing three of his final four holes for a six-under-par 65.

Bennett, competing in the same group as Montgomerie, also shot a 65 to produce his lowest 54-hole total in his short professional career.

Singh clinched last week's Malaysian Open in a sudden death play-off and is now confident of adding the Asian/European Tour double.

"I was glad to finish because it was getting a bit dodgy at the end in the poor light," he said.

"I was feeling pretty good when I went out after the delay but totally lost the feel of the greens and three-putted the 14th for bogey.

Montgomerie came from five strokes behind last Sunday in Melbourne to clinch the Australian Masters and begins the final day only three behind the world number eight.

"I needed four birdies and I'll take three, so three out of four is okay," he said.

"I have to go out with a real flier tomorrow and hopefully put some pressure on them."