Bren O'Brien and Angus Morgan, Sportal
World No.1 Tiger Woods has his first title on Australian soil firmly in his sights after establishing a three-shot break over the rest of the field at the halfway stage of the JBWere Masters at Kingston Heath in Melbourne.
Woods, who shared the lead after an opening 66, produced an unspectacular but effective round of 68 on Friday to move to 10-under overall, three clear of Australia's James Nitties and Greg Chalmers and compatriot Jason Dufner, who was the best of the early tee-offs with a 67.
The crowd of 24,007 which turned out to watch the world's premier golfer was far from disappointed as Tiger produced two birdies to kick things off and then gathered shots at the 6th and 12th. The fact Woods has left a few shots out on the course over the first two days is no consolation to the chasing pack, which would appear to have little chance of reeling him in over the weekend.
Woods said he found Friday's round much more difficult than Thursday's with the wind picking up in the afternoon and causing him a few troubles.
"Today I didn't really do anything great, but I made two big par putts at 9 and 14 to keep the round going," Woods said.
"To shoot 68 today, I thought that was a pretty good number, considering the conditions. I did have a couple of short birdie putts that I missed, but not to drop a shot today on the card. Those are always days you feel quite good about."
Nitties, who also shot a 66 in the opening round, kept pace with the leader for much of the day with birdies on 1, 6 and 14, but bogeys on 15 and 17 saw him slip three back. Chalmers picked up four birdies, three on the front nine and one on the back, to maintain touch but also bogeyed the 17th.
A second-round 67 saw Dufner as the early clubhouse leader at seven-under. The 32-year-old did his best work early in his round, racing to the turn in 31 on a front nine that included five birdies. He got to nine-under before dropping two shots late including a bogey at the last when he three-putted from 15 metres.
"All in all, it was a pretty good day, a 67 on this golf course is a pretty good score," said Dufner.
"It's fantastic to come all the way over here to play golf and have a chance to win this tournament."
"It's a great tournament, one of your bigger tournaments especially with Tiger being in the field and any time you can measure up against the game's No.1 it shows you where you're at."
Three players share fifth place, Ashley Hall, Manny Villegas and Mathew Goggin. Goggin, whose 68 was the best of the afternoon rounds on Thursday, would have been hoping for something better than his 70, which comprised 16 pars and two birdies, on Friday morning.
Colombian Villegas is enjoying his time in Australia and also sits five off the pace after six birdies and two bogeys, while Hall had five birdies and two bogeys in his 69.
Austria's Bernd Wiesberger moved up the leaderboard with a 67 to take a share of eighth with Stuart Appleby (70), Steven Bowditch (68), Mahal Pearce (68) and Cameron Percy (72).
Of the other leading Australian contenders, John Senden (73, 69) is on two-under alongside Adam Scott (71, 71), a stroke clear of Richard Green (72, 71).Rod Pampling, who played with Woods, shot a 70 for three-under overall, while Craig Parry just made the cut at two-over after a 76. Geoff Ogilvy had another frustrating day with a 73 to sit one-over.
Coming off Thursday's one-over 73, Aaron Baddeley was in danger of disappearing out the back door when he double-bogeyed his fifth hole for the morning, the par-five 14th, which has proved easy pickings for virtually all the leading contenders.
But the 2007 Australian Masters champion who also won the Australian Open at the Heath in 2000 redeemed himself with a scorching inward nine.
An eagle at the first was the trigger and he kept it going with a flurry of birdies from 5 through 7 for a 68 which has him at three-under overall.