Talk about horses for courses

Three former winners of the Barclays Singapore Open and last year’s runner up are in the top 10 at the halfway stage of this year’s tournament with two-time champion Adam Scott of Australia leading by two-shots.

Scott, who won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006 and came with a final-round charge to finish joint third last year, shot six-under-par 65 on The Tanjong Course at Sentosa Golf Club on Friday for a 12 under total of 130.

He is two strokes ahead of defending champion Ian Poulter of England who holed a snaking, 100-foot birdie putt at the last to card a scintillating eight-under-par 63, also on the shorter Tanjong layout.

India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, who edged Major winners Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els to the title in 2008, came home with a scorching 64.

He is in joint seventh place with last year’s second-place finisher Liang Wen-chong of China, who shot 65. The duo, who also played Tanjong, are four shots adrift of Scott.

Scott finished off his round on the Serapong Course on Friday morning, shooting 65, and spent a total of eight and a half hours on the course in high heat and humidity.

"Every time you have won somewhere you always enjoy going back and you have good feelings and I have had a great run here in Singapore in the past and it would be great to have another great run over the weekend and get win number three," said Scott.

"I enjoy being here for the Barclays Singapore Open. Everyone is really supportive and I have a good time playing golf here."

Poulter said that he was relishing a return to the Serapong Course on Saturday.

"I am looking forward to going back onto Serapong tomorrow," he said. "It is definitely the harder of the two courses but I like that. I hear it might be a bit windy on Sunday which is good too and so I have put myself up there in the hunt again which is all I could do."

Former Asian number one Liang is also itching to renew the battle with the tougher Serapong layout.

"I have played well at Serapong in the past and I am confident of getting a good score during the weekend rounds there," he said. "I am feeling good about my form this week and hopefully I can get a good finish on Sunday."