Just when it looked as if Tiger Woods was about to shut the door on the chasing pack in the WGC-NEC Invitational, an unexpected stumble by the world number one suddenly left the 7.5 million-dollar tournament wide open.
Instead of holding a two-shot lead going into Saturday's third round, the 29-year-old American found himself tied with England's Luke Donald at four-under for the tournament, thanks to a double bogey on the 18th.
7-iron over the green, chip shot came up short, two putted for six," explained Woods.
The British Open and Masters champion remained upbeat, however. It was an impressive three-under 67 that gave the 27-year-old Donald a share of the lead.
With over two million dollars in prize money this year already on the US PGA Tour, Donald knows he is playing well enough to win this week.
Woods has nothing but praise for the Englishman.
Lurking one shot off the lead were Fiji's Vijay Singh, Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Ireland's Paul McGinley.
Singh, who had begun the day sharing the lead with Woods and Stenson, saw it almost all come apart over the closing holes.
The 'monster' of Firestone, the 667-yard par-5 16th, claimed the Fijian as another victim when Singh, despite laying up short of the water guarding the green, dropped his approach into the water.
Singh was lucky to escape with only a bogey when his fourth shot skipped through the green into the rough.
But using a fairway wood, Singh putted out of the long grass and curled the ball into the hole.
SECOND ROUND SCORES (USA unless stated):
136 - Luke Donald (ENG) 69-67, Tiger Woods 66-70
137 - Thomas Bjorn (DEN) 70-67, Vijay Singh (FIJ) 66-71, Henrik Stenson (SWE), 66-71, Paul McGinley (IRE) 71-66, Chris DiMarco 67-70
138 - Stuart Appleby (AUS), David Howell (ENG) 70-68, David Toms 71-67, Sergio Garcia (SPA) 68-70, Justin Leonard 72-66
139 - Kenny Perry 70-69
140 - Mike Weir (CAN) 71-69, John Daly 71-69, Jose Maria Olazabal (SPA) 72-68, Ryan Palmer 72-68, Zach Johnson 70-70, Davis Love 67-73
141 - Kenneth Ferrie (ENG) 71-70, Nick O'Hern (AUS) 68-73, Woody Austin 73-68, Rod Pampling (AUS) 71-70, Phil Mickelson 69-72
142 - Ian Poulter (ENG) 73-69, Rory Sabbatini (RSA) 73-69, Colin Montgomerie (SCO) 70-72
143 - Padraig Harrington (IRL) 75-68, Ted Purdy 72-71, Paul Casey (ENG) 75-68, Thomas Levet (FRA) 72-71
144 - Tom Lehman 73-71, Trevor Immelman (RSA) 73-71, Sean O'Hair 70-74, Niclas Fasth (SWE) 72-72, Chad Campbell 72-72, Stewart Cink 72-72, Darren Clarke (NIR) 76-68
145 - Lee Westwood (ENG) 73-72, Fred Couples 71-74, Jay Haas 76-69, Jim Furyk 72-73, Shigeki Maruyama (JPN) 75-70, Stephen Ames (CAN) 74-71, Peter Lonard (AUS) 74-71, Fred Funk 74-71
146 - Adam Scott (AUS) 70-76, Michael Campbell (NZL) 72-74, Brent Geiberger 70-76, Tim Clark (RSA) 71-75, Marc Cayeux (ZIM) 71-75, Mark Hensby (AUS) 70-76, Scott Verplank 73-73
147 - Bart Bryant 74-73, K.J. Choi (KOR) 71-76
148 - Geoff Ogilvy (AUS) 74-74, Kazuhiko Hosokawa (JPN) 70-78, Nick Dougherty (ENG) 67-81, Stephen Gallacher (SCO) 74-74, Steve Elkington (AUS) 72-76
149 - Angel Cabrera (ARG) 75-74, Ben Crane 74-75, Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 73-76
150 - Chris Riley 69-81, Craig Parry (AUS) 79-71, Retief Goosen (RSA) 77-73
151 - Miguel Angel Jimenez (SPA) 76-75 152 - Stephen Dodd (WAL) 74-78
153 - Tim Petrovic 80-73
154 - Richard Green (AUS) 76-78
156 - Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 79-77.
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