Tiger Woods stretched his lead to two strokes late in the second round of the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath on Friday.
Tiger Woods stretched his lead to two strokes late in the second round of the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath on Friday.
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The peerless World No 1 carded a bogey-free round of four birdies to dominate the second round and head into the weekend well placed for his first tournament victory in Australia and 93rd overall.
The 14-time major winner had a four-under 68 to be 10-under 134 for the tournament and lead Australians James Nitties and Greg Chalmers late in the round.
Woods followed up his six-under 66 in Thursday's opening round with the steely 68 and has given up just one bogey over the opening 36 holes at the tough sandbelt course.
Watched by the majority of the sell-out 24,000 fans, Woods had birdies at the first, second, sixth and 12th holes and narrowly missed another three birdies.
Woods set the tone with a birdie-birdie start at his opening two holes and watched by a huge gallery, up to six deep in places.
He holed a five-foot putt at the first hole and then wowed the crowd with a spectacular approach shot to within one foot at the next.
Woods also scrambled well and came out of a deep greenside bunker at the fourth hole to save par.
He picked up another stroke at the sixth when he sunk an uphill 18-footer to lead by two and holed a pressure 15-foot putt at the ninth to complete the outward nine holes in three-under.
The American picked up his fourth birdie at the 12th as he threatened to pull away from his rivals in sunny, bright conditions.
Woods swung his club in anger after an errant drive off the 14th tee, but he was fortunate that his ball smashed a spectator's mobile phone and stopped it from going on into the fairway trees.
But he again fought his way back to par the hole and save dropping a stroke.
Woods looked certain to pick up another shot at the 15th, but his 12-foot birdie putt hovered tantalisingly on the lip of the hole. He missed another birdie chance at the next hole when his downhill putt curled wide.
American Jason Dufner and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger shared the rounds of the day at five-under 67. Dufner had seven birdies and two bogeys while Wiesberger fired five birdies in an unblemished round.
"It's fantastic to come all the way over here to play golf and have a chance to win this tournament, especially with Tiger in the field," Dufner said.
"I'm excited about the weekend, I feel like I'm playing pretty well and we'll just from there and see how it goes tomorrow."
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