Garcia has two-stroke advantage

Sergio Garcia posed over a 9-iron that never reached the green. Vijay Singh felt the wind change in the middle of his swing. Tiger Woods watched a birdie chance disappear off the green and into the water.

Blustery wind that swirled from all corners fooled some of the world’s best players and turned the Wachovia Championship into a test of patience Friday at Charlotte, N.C.

Garcia survived by playing bogey-free on the back nine for a 1-under-par 71, giving him a two-shot lead over Singh, defending champion Joey Sindelar and D.J. Trahan going into the weekend.

“You make bogey, you’ve just got to realize … it’s going to happen,” Garcia said. “You’ve just got to try to keep it up. You try as hard as possible to have fun.”

The biggest thrill was his position, at 7-under 137, his first 36-hole lead in nearly four years on the PGA Tour.

The wind calmed over the final two hours at Quail Hollow, and the scoring average dropped a half-shot to 74.6. The course was so fast that the field hit less than 50 percent of the fairways.

Masters runner-up Chris DiMarco, Greg Owen, and Trahan each posted a 67, the lowest round of a tough day, although all of them came in the afternoon when the wind died.

The cut was at 4 over, and there 15 players within five shots of the lead. That included Woods, who has made 11 birdies the first two rounds, but has sprinkled in enough bogeys to leave him with plenty of work to catch up.

Singh and Scott Verplank each had 69s in the toughest conditions. Verplank, Brett Quigley (69) and Richard Johnson (72) were at 4-under 140, while Owen, DiMarco, Jim Furyk and Jeff Sluman (70) were among those at 141.

LPGA Tour

Annika Sorenstam’s winning streak is on hold again.

Rain wiped out the Michelob Ultra Open at Williamsburg, Va., and the second round will start anew this morning. The final 36 holes of the tournament will be played Sunday.

The storm could have been a huge break for Sorenstam. After shooting a 5-over 76 on Thursday, she has work to do just to make the cut, let alone keep her quest for a record sixth straight victory alive. She’s nine strokes behind first-round leaders Silvia Cavalleri and Catrin Nilsmark, and several off the projected cut line.

More than a half-inch of rain fell on the River Course at Kingsmill between 7 a.m. and noon, wreaking havoc with the scores of the morning groups. Only a few players were below par for the day when the round was wiped out.

Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., shot 70 in the first round Thursday.