Woods defended his cautious approach |
Defending champion Tiger Woods said he was happy with his progress at the US Open after a second-round 66 took him to within three shots of the lead. Woods opened the tournament with an unspectacular level-par 70 but was in much more impressive form on Friday.
"I hit the ball a little better today and gave myself some chances," Woods said.
"I felt more comfortable with my swing so I shaded the ball maybe a yard or two towards the flag. I feel pretty good. Any time you're under par at a US Open after two days, you've got a chance.
"I'm right where I need to be."
Woods added that he was confident his cautious approach would pay off.
"The only flag I really fired at was 18," Woods said.
"If you get too aggressive you go out there and hit it on the short side and make a couple bogeys, you put yourself right out of it."
Woods quiet progress was in stark contrast to that of Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk, joint leaders on seven under par.
Singh equalled the best ever Open score for a single round with a 63, claiming seven birdies along the way.
"I feel good, I played really well," he said.
"I hit a lot of drivers out there. That wasn't my plan but I started to swing a lot better and the ball was going where I was aiming so I said, 'why not go ahead and be aggressive?'
 Tom Watson dropped back after his brilliant opening round |
"I got a momentum going, but I would feel even better if I did it on Sunday. "There's still two days to go and I'm going to try and focus on what I'm going to do on Saturday and forget about this round."
The 33-year-old Furyk reeled off four birdies in a blemish-free display to set a record tournament aggregate of 133.
"I have put myself in a good position and I struck the ball very well," Furyk said.
"I wasn't as flamboyant as yesterday, but it was very solid and I'm happy with it."
Tom Watson, joint leader after the first round, could not continue his stunning form as he carded a 72 for a three-under total of 137.
"I didn't get anything going, so the emotion wasn't quite as strong as it was yesterday," said the 53-year-old.
"Today was more of a struggle ... I was just treading water."
MMIX
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