<p>The skies above Augusta National were cloudy and threatening. The wind whipped across the course. The club grounds were a gooey mess.</p><p>At least it wasn't raining.</p><p>The Masters tried to get back on schedule Saturday after two days of stormy weather. Perennial contender Chris DiMarco built a comfortable lead, Tiger Woods surged onto the leaderboard, and everyone wondered how Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson would get along after a nasty confrontation over spike marks the previous day.</p><p>DiMarco, on top with a 67 after the weather-delayed first round, pushed his score to 8 under with three more birdies on the front nine. He seemed likely to be leading a round at the Masters for the fifth time in five years.</p><p>No one was able to complete the second round Friday. Rain swept across Augusta shortly after noon and wiped out play for the rest of the day.</p><p>Once the cut is made, players will try to get in another 18 holes before the sun sets. Not that the sun was visible early in the day, obscured by a thick blanket of clouds.</p><p>The forecast for Sunday was more promising _ sunny, with temperatures in the upper 70s.</p><p>DiMarco birdied the two par-5s on the front side, then stretched his lead with another birdie at No. 9. He still had six holes to play in the second round.</p><p>No one else was within four strokes of the leader. Singh, Mickelson and Thomas Bjorn of Denmark were at 4 under, with David Howell and amateur Ryan Moore another stroke back.</p><p>But three-time winner Woods was coming to life after a shaky first round. He rolled in a 5-footer for birdie at No. 9 to make the turn with a 33, then pushed his score to 4 under for the day _ 2 under overall _ with another birdie at the 11th.</p><p>Woods opened with a 74 _ the third straight year he's failed to break par in the first round of the Masters.</p><p>On Friday, Singh complained to rules officials that the metal spikes in Mickelson's shoes were too long and creating marks on the green.</p><p>Playing in the group behind Mickelson, Singh raised the issue at No. 12 after missing a 25-foot birdie attempt on about the same line that Lefty used to make his putt.</p><p>Mickelson wasn't happy about the way the situation was handled, and he said so to Singh afterward in the clubhouse.</p><p>"I heard Vijay talking to other players about it, and I confronted him," Mickelson said through his press agent, T.R. Reinman. "He expressed his concerns. I expressed my disappointment in the way it was handled. I believe everything is fine now."</p><p>Singh, the world's top-ranked player, always seems to be in contention no matter where he plays. Even with the brouhaha, he was steady as ever, following up just his second bogey of the tournament with a birdie at No. 2 that got him back to 4 under.</p><p>Mickelson was trying to become just the fourth player to win the Masters two years in a row. Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Woods are the only repeat champions.</p><p>Woods struggled the first two days, most notably when he knocked a putt into Rae's Creek. Come Saturday, he was looking like the Tiger of old.</p><p>The first shot of the tournament was struck 5 1/2 hours late, held up by heavy thunderstorms. The Masters hasn't finished on a Monday since 1983, but it will be played in its entirety no matter what.</p><p>"We're going to play 72 holes," said Will Nicholson, chairman of the competition committee. "It looks very good (for the weekend) looking at the weather guides. But this year, it's crazy."</p><p>Indeed. Bad weather has interrupted play on the PGA Tour for the ninth time in 15 tournaments, and the fourth week in a row.</p><p>"We're all used to it after this year," Justin Leonard said. "It's nothing new."</p><p>It's nothing new for the Masters, either. Four straight years, the tournament has been interrupted by storms.</p><p>These scenes are becoming downright routine: cat litter spread around the grounds to soak up the water; Rae's Creek looking more like Willy Wonka's chocolate river; the soaked, mud-splattered patrons trudging toward the gates.</p><p>Two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw knows it's tough to stay focused with so much weather disruption. On Friday, for instance, DiMarco finished up the last four holes of the first round, took a short break, played one hole to start the second _ and was done for the day.</p><p>"It's very difficult to do in a major," Crenshaw said. "These guys are trying their hardest to find and capture a feeling. You have a delay, you have to start all over again."</p>
