Woods back in contention

After shooting a one over par on Thursday, Tiger Woods promised that he would "tidy things up" in yesterday’s second round of the US Open at Torrey Pines.

And he was as good as his word as he covered his second nine holes in a brilliant 30 shots for a round of 68 that moved him to two under par for the championship and just one outside halfway leader Stuart Appleby from Australia.

Woods did struggle in the early stages and finding the straight and narrow proved a major problem for both himself and his playing partner Phil Mickelson, who again went into battle without a driver in his bag.

The runaway world number one managed to hit only three of his first eight fairway and playing the course the wrong way round, stood three over par for the championship after nine holes.

From there home, though, he could do no wrong. Now it was a case of down the middle off the tee, the iron shots never left their target and the putts tracked relentlessly at the hole. Five straight threes were the result, four of them birdies, and through thirteen holes he had dipped below par in the championship for the first time.

Mickelson, who had finished one ahead of his great rival on Thursday, and world number three Adam Scott were left in his slipstream on this occasion and it was little wonder.

Woods was relentless, even if he was short for a sixth straight three from fifteen feet at the 515 yards, par four 6th. His prospects of shooting 29 for the nine holes, a feat achieved in this event in the past only by the little-known Neil Lancaster on a couple of occasions and once by Vijay Singh, looked to have gone when he also parred the next two.

However, when he launched a mighty three wood of 275 yards to the back edge of the 612 yards 9th, his 18th, he might well have joined them.

However, his little chip pulled up sooner than anticipated but he nursed home a three footer for his birdie, a homeward 30 and a round of 68 that puts Woods just where he wants to be at this stage of the tournament.

"It wasn’t exactly the ideal start, two over after three, but I made a nice birdie at 13 and I thought I was getting it going but instead I took bogeys at 16 and 17," said Woods.

"And then all of a sudden I began to make a bunch of putts on the back nine. That stretch just sits up well for me."

Charlie Mulqueen, San Diego

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