Tournament host Tiger Woods took charge at the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club on Friday but a back-nine collapse put paid to Paul Casey's hopes of competing over the weekend.
With big crowds turning out in the Washington DC area at the start of the July 4 holiday weekend, Woods followed Thursday's six-under-par 64, his lowest opening round in two years, with a 66 on the par-70, 7,255-yard Blue Course in Bethesda, Maryland.
The five-birdie, one-bogey round took the world number one into an early second-round lead at 10 under par and he held on to it after overnight leader Anthony Kim failed to build on his course record, eight-under 62 in the first round.
The leader, though, was far from happy with his day's work.
"I didn't drive the ball as well as I did yesterday or hit my irons as crisp," Woods said.
"Either I hit it pretty close to the hole, within 10 feet, or I was missing greens. So it was a little bit of two ends today.
"It was nice to actually get a score out of it. I didn't shoot myself in the foot and had a stretch there from basically 17 through three where I didn't really hit the ball all that well but somehow was able to get through it and keep the momentum of the round going."
Kim had got to 10 under after eight holes before three bogeys undermined his good work. A birdie at the 16th, though left him with a level-par 70 to finish two strokes behind Woods in third place, one behind Australia's Rod Pampling, who posted a 64 to move to nine under par.
Kim was happy to have remained in the hunt after surviving a tough round.
"It was a grind, possibly one of the toughest ball-striking days I've had in a long time, even with all my injuries (this year) and I feel good," Kim said. "I stayed positive and made a couple of key putts to keep me in it so it's not so bad to be third after a rough day."
04 July, 2009