KAPALUA, Maui — Improbably, the weather got worse for yesterday's second round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship. More improbably, the golf got better at Kapalua's Plantation Course.

The wind howled and an inch of rain pelted the course from Thursday night until just after the players teed off — more than an hour late — at noon yesterday. Still, more than half the field shot par or better. Through all the madness Vijay Singh rose to the top with his second straight round of 4-under-par 69.

Singh is a shot ahead of Trevor Immelman (68), the 2006 Rookie of the Year, and Will MacKenzie (70), who is so different from Singh it is hard to imagine them mentioned in the same breath. Pressed to name three things they have in common, MacKenzie was as adorably wacky as he has been all week describing his former life as a wanderer devoted to extreme sports.

"We both like golf," said MacKenzie, who was selling hammocks and living in his van before he regained his passion for golf five years ago. "We both like pasta marinara, because I ate his second helping for lunch. ... And, we both like to practice.

"I don't even think he knows my name. He just calls me 'Bro.' I don't think he's on the Willie-Mac kick."

Their passion for practice was obvious yesterday. Anyone who played well, and stayed standing, on the battered Plantation Course had to have spent many hours on the range. Players drove off tees that were being rolled between groups because they were so soggy.

"When you made the turn it was almost getting to the state where you could have called it," Singh said. "The ball was oscillating on the greens and it was just getting a little too difficult there. The wind was howling. Must have been blowing at 40 mph. When we got around the corner — 13, 14 — it started to come down a little bit so it was playable then."

What did Singh do in this Hawai'i weather warp? Hit practically every ball pure and erase his lone bogey with eagle on the next hole to seize the lead from the fifth hole on.

Singh has been in the top 10 at this winners-only event his last seven starts, coming in second to Stuart Appleby last year and in 2004, and falling to fifth with a triple bogey on the 67th hole in 2005 after leading all week. He had what he considered a disappointing 2006, when he struggled with his drives and won just once after three brilliant seasons.

Endless hours of practice to fix the flaw, and a new driver, have him in relatively good spirits.

"I think it's important to win early, I want to win early," Singh said. "I think my golf is fixed. I'm swinging the golf club with a lot more control now. If I can do that at the beginning of the season, winning won't be that difficult if I just keep doing what I know I need to do.

"It fits. Right now my golf swing fits with me and that's very, very important. If I can go out and win this week I'm looking for a great season."

Immelman and J.B. Holmes, who birdied four straight holes — the last three from within 3 feet — on the back nine shared low-round honors at 68. Immelman, the first rookie in 30 years to finish among the top 10 in earnings, would have been leading but for a double-bogey on 16 Thursday.

He insisted he was relatively comfortable in the ocean breezes after growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, but also admitted he "didn't even know where the ocean was" the last two days because he was so focused on "trying to get the ball in the hole as soon as you can."

Like Singh, Immelman has thrived on the rhythm of his swing through the extreme conditions. And, like Singh, he took little time off.

MacKenzie, whose caddie is former Plantation employee Todd Murphy, is something else entirely. He came out of nowhere to win last year and spent four days here surfing. He would have a share of the lead this morning but for a three-putt at the 17th — after an official warned him to hurry up. He called his game "rock solid" in conditions more conducive to shredding swings and psyches.

"It's really tough to get it close," MacKenzie said, "especially when you're hitting 4-iron from 180. You have to hit weird little 'feel' shots. This is a great little shot-maker's paradise out there right now. You know, I didn't do anything real special, but I didn't do anything bad."

His eccentric take on the PGA Tour is as extreme as the conditions here. Yesterday's stories included how he was razzed by Singh for his "funky smile" after chipping in Thursday, how he has started a "mass golfing frenzy" among snowboarders and skateboarders in his old hometown of Big Sky, Mont., because of his success, and admitting he was a whiner.

"We know it's going to blow really hard here, that's what it does," MacKenzie said. "We're out in the middle of the ocean and the trade winds blow. You just come prepared for that. If you're going to whine about the wind out here, you're adios. But I still do."

He took the ribbing from Singh as a compliment, called him "a sweetheart" and said he is "tight with everybody on Tour."

"If Vijay gives me any grief, that means he likes me," Mac-Kenzie said. "I think Vijay likes me a little bit. And I like every guy. I'm just so overwhelmed that I get to play golf next to Vijay or Tiger or any of these guys. I mean, I'm so blessed to be out here, I can't even tell you. So, I like to walk into the locker room in the morning and have people start heckling me. I like it."

Arron Oberholser withdrew yesterday morning with a bad back, and clinched the $50,000 last prize.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.