SWEET 64s

Vijay Singh and Tom Kite both came up a few feet short of landing in the U.S. Open record book. <br><br>Both players needed to sink putts on the 18th hole to shoot 63 and tie the record low in a major.

Monday, June 18th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Vijay Singh and Tom Kite both came up a few feet short of landing in the U.S. Open record book.

Both players needed to sink putts on the 18th hole to shoot 63 and tie the record low in a major. Both missed and settled for a 64, matching Mark Brooks for the lowest round of the tournament. Brooks had a 64 on Friday.

``I made two bogeys (on 12 and 14),'' Singh said. ``So if you make bogeys out there on the golf course like this you're not going to shoot a 63. But I'm quite happy with what I did.''

Kite, the 1992 Open champion, said he wasn't thinking about the record books, just trying to make his shots on the testy 18th.

``You know it's a slower putt, but it's not that much slower,'' he said.

There have been three 63s in the U.S. Open, most recently by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf in 1980 at Baltusrol.

It has been done seven times at the British Open, five times at the PGA Championship and twice at the Masters.

Singh shot a 63 in the second round of 1993 PGA Championship where he wound up fourth.