Woods tied for the lead in Shanghai

Last updated: 6th November 2009

Tiger Woods shares the lead at the halfway mark of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai as the cream rose to the top on day two at the Sheshan International Golf Club.

The world number one carded a second round 67, adding four birdies in his closing eight holes, to join first round leader and US compatriot Nick Watney at the top of the leaderboard at 10-under.

Watney couldn't reproduce his first day heroics but after a double bogey at the fifth he came home in 33 to reclaim pole position before Tiger's birdie at the last made it a two-way tie at the top.

Woods said after his round: "Today, I got off to a good start and birdied the very first hole. But after that, I didn't really make any putts. I had certainly some looks and didn't really capitalise on anything.

"But I made a putt at nine and from then on, I hit a lot of good putts and basically played the last 10 holes at five-under," added Woods, who was runner-up here in 2005 and 2006.

"I was surprised at how difficult the pins were today. I think they certainly toughened it up after they saw what we did yesterday. You had to pay attention with some of those pins. You can't really go after just about every pin like you could yesterday," said the 14-time Major champion.

Watney, coming off his best season on the US PGA Tour, said he had expected the top stars make their move on Friday.

"It's no surprise that they are playing well. I need to go out and keep playing well and keep making birdies to have any shot," said the American.

Now just one behind is world number two Phil Mickelson who shot a blistering back nine 31 to finish at nine-under after a superb display of chipping and pitching gave him a round two 66.

Mickelson chipped in twice at the seventh and 15th holes for birdies for a blemish-free card and said: "I played well and kept the ball in play all throughout the day, and then made a couple of birdies at the end.

"I like this tournament a lot and I like this golf course a lot. So I'm hoping to play well on the weekend, but I'm very pleased with where I have put myself after two rounds."

Mickelson shares third place with big-hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, who also shot a 66, and American Ryan Moore (69).

Quiros is the only European player inside the top 10 at halfway and he said: "I'm hitting the ball okay, nothing great but nothing bad either. I've been very lucky because the shots I missed were very playable and I made a good recovery.

"I didn't see my name on the leaderboard for a long time, it was all Americans. It was strange but it's very exciting for me.

"All of the players on the leaderboard are great players, we will have to see what happens."

Since posting a thrilling win in Qatar at the start of the year which pushed the 26-year-old into the world's top 30, Quiros has struggled to recapture that form, with only a second place at May's European Open to show for his efforts.

He has now slipped outside of the top 50 after missing the cut in Singapore last week, but a continued strong showing would soon change that and improve his 20th place in the Race to Dubai with just two events remaining after this week.

"I don't think the Americans are too strong, it's just a question of luck or whatever you want to call it," added Quiros.

"Most of the time there are a lot of Europeans at the top of the leaderboard but I don't really now why I am the only European. I think we are playing well, most of the Europeans are in a very good position."

US Ryder Cup star Anthony Kim is also right in the hunt at eight-under but some of the elite Europeans have much work to do.

Paul Casey dropped from tied fifth to tied 14th after a 73 while Ross Fisher is also on four-under - six behind Tiger and Watney - after finding water at the 18th and racking up a bogey six.

Germany's Martin Kaymer failed to make a single birdie as he fell six off the pace after a 74 while defending champion Sergio Garcia did limited repair work to his opening 75, shooting a second round 70 to end the day a massive 11 shots behind the two leaders.

Padraig Harrington also has a mountain to climb despite a 69 (his opening 74 did the damage) but Rory McIlroy might just fancy a weekend charge after four late birdies hoisted him from one over to three-under.

The biggest disappointment of the day was Nick Dougherty. Well in the hunt after a 68 on Thursday he slumped to a worst-of-the-day 80 on Friday which included a nine at the final hole. That quadruple bogey saw him slide from tied ninth to tied 66th of the 78-man field.

ALL THE SECOND ROUND SCORES

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

134 Nick Watney (USA) 64 70, Tiger Woods (USA) 67 67

135 Phil Mickelson (USA) 69 66, Ryan Moore (USA) 66 69, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 66

136 Anthony Kim (USA) 67 69

137 Pat Perez (USA) 68 69

138 Brian Gay (USA) 69 69, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 68 70

139 Koumei Oda (Jpn) 70 69, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 72 67, Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe) 67 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 70 69

140 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 73 67, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 70, Jason Dufner (USA) 69 71, Ross Fisher 70 70, Matt Kuchar (USA) 68 72, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 66 74, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 69, Shane Lowry 66 74, Paul Casey 67 73

141 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 72, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 69 72, Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 69 72, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 72 69, Simon Dyson 72 69, Rory McIlroy 73 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 71, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 71, Ian Poulter 72 69, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 72, Lee Westwood 70 71

142 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 74 68, Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 71

143 Oliver Wilson 71 72, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 72, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 72 71, C Muniyappa (Ind) 74 69, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 73 70, Padraig Harrington 74 69, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 75 68

144 Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 72

145 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 73 72, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 75 70, Ashun Wu (Chn) 74 71, Stewart Cink (USA) 71 74, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 74, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 71 74, Danny Lee (Nzl) 74 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 74 71, Sean O'Hair (USA) 74 71, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 71 74

146 Jerry Kelly (USA) 71 75, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 72 74, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 74, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 73 73, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 73 73, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 74, Martin Laird 72 74, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 73 73

147 Steve Marino (USA) 77 70, Mark Murless (Rsa) 71 76, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 73

148 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 74 74, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 76 72, Nick Dougherty 68 80, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 71

150 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 77, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 81 69, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 76

151 Anthony Kang (USA) 75 76

152 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 74 78, Wei-Huang Wu (Chn) 74 78

154 Jean Hugo (Rsa) 78 76, Thomas Levet (Fra) 77 77

156 Nathan Green (Aus) 79 77