By By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods played one shot left-handed and put two balls in the water at Amen Corner. Phil Mickelson spent most of the day scrambling out of the woods.
So much for that two-man show at the Masters.
Augusta National refused to play favorites for anyone Friday on a crisp afternoon, leaving Brett Wetterich and Tim Clark tied for the lead and only one other player under par after two excruciating rounds on a relentless golf course.
Wetterich three-putted for bogey twice over the final four holes and staggered home to a 1-over 73. Clark, the runner-up a year ago to Mickelson, holed a putt from off the 18th green for a 71.
They were at 2-under 142, the highest 36-hole score to lead the Masters in 25 years.
Vaughn Taylor had a chance to join them until missing a 5-foot par putt on the final hole for a 72 that left him one shot behind.
Forget that notion that only a dozen or so players are capable of winning at Augusta National. Heading into the weekend, the green jacket was up for grabs — even for Woods and Mickelson, who have five of them over the six years but have struggled this week.
Woods only dropped one shot from his two water balls on the 12th and 13th, made birdie from well behind the 15th green and somehow escaped with a 74, leaving him at 3-over 147 and among 22 players within five shots of the lead.
Another shot behind was Mickelson, who worried about missing the cut when he was lost in the forest left of the 11th fairway. He managed to limit the damage to a bogey, again played mistake-free over the final four holes and shot 73.
Sixty players made the cut at 8-over 152, the most players to advance to the weekend since 61 players in 1993. But there isn’t a ton of experience at the top.
Vijay Singh, the 2000 Masters champion, shot a 71 and was in the group at 144 that included Jerry Kelly (69), Zach Johnson (73) and Justin Rose (75). Johnson was poised to take the lead when he stood over a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th. He three-putted for bogey, then dropped shots on the last two holes.
The group at 145 included U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy (70) and Padraig Harrington, whose 68 has been as low a round as Augusta National has allowed for two days. Paul Casey also shot 68 while paired with Woods.
Woods sure didn’t look like a worthy candidate, finding bunkers on his first two tee shots and missing the ninth fairway so badly that his only option was to invert a wedge and chip out as a southpaw. And that wasn’t even the worst of it.
He had to play out of the trees on No. 11 for a bogey. The swirling wind turned against him on the par-3 12th and deposited his shot onto the bank and into Rae’s Creek, where he scrambled for a bogey with a 20-foot putt. And his second shot to the par-5 13th hung out to the right and splashed twice before settling at the bottom of the stream. He got up-and-down there for a par.
Woods played the final five holes in 2 under, and while it was only the second time he has started the Masters with two rounds over par, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to be within range of the leaders.
The last time a 36-hole score this high led the Masters was in 1982, when Curtis Strange and Craig Stadler were at even-par 144.
Stadler, 53, was among four seniors to make the cut, joining the large group at 3-over 147 that featured Woods, Casey, Mark Calcavecchia, former Masters champion Mike Weir and Dean Wilson, the first player from Hawaii to make the cut. Weir and Wilson, roommates at BYU, will be paired together Saturday.
The other seniors were two-time winner Ben Crenshaw at 150 and Fuzzy Zoeller and Sandy Lyle at 152. Also making the cut on the number was Fred Couples, for a Masters record-tying 23rd consecutive time.
Mickelson wasn’t sure if he would be around to join them.
He felt great on the putting green. He felt great teeing off. He felt as though this was going to be a great day.
And he was 3 over for the round through six holes.
Then came trouble on the 11th, when he hit his tee shot into the trees — to the left, the side of the fairway Mickelson is so desperate to eliminate — and his next shot clipped more trees and left him unable to see the green. After finding his ball near television cables, he was given free relief and pitched out 100 yards short of the green. He hit wedge to 6 feet and took bogey.
The only scare after that was a shot into the front bunker on the 12th. Lefty took care of the par 5s with birdies and, as wild as he has been over two days, remains only seven shots behind.
The leaders’ chances largely depend on how they handle the weekend pressure.
Clark has finished in the top three at the 2006 Masters, 2005 U.S. Open and 2003 PGA Championship, although he never had a serious chance at winning any of them. He remembers seeing his name atop the leaderboard in the third round last year, and then he stumbled.
Wetterich is playing his first Masters, but he already seems to have figured it out.
His wedge to the par-5 15th came up 30 feet short, and he ran his birdie attempt some 7 feet by the hole. Bogey. On the 16th, with the hole location in a precarious spot atop a shelf in the front right portion of the green, he ran his 45-foot putt up the ridge and all the way off the green. Bogey. The biggest putt of the day came on the 17th, when he rammed another 30-foot putt about 6 feet by, but made that for par.