us open round two

Tiger Woods showed poise and perseverance as he dug deep to lead the US Open at The Olympic CLub in San Francisco.

He joined warhorses Jim Furyk and David Toms at one under as the incredinly tough course chewed up many of the pre-tournament favourites. Gone are Luke Donald and Rory McIlRoy and Masters champion Bubba Watson as the event moves into the weekend with Tiger chasing his 15th Major after a four-year drought of top titles.

There were no players on level par and a host on one over, including Northern Irelands Graeme McDowell. The 2010 US Open champion kept his head as many aorund him were losing theirs to stay very much in contention.

Padraig Harrington also showed his experience to battle his way round and Justin Rose hung on to stay vaguely in contention. Both sit at four over for the tournament, which is only five shots off the lead. But, this is not a course that will easily give up a 66 or 67 and so closing that deficit will be incredibly tough.

Ernie Els is also on four over after shooting a very impressive 69 in the second round to climb up the leaderboard.

Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood were both comfortably inside the cut line (a whopping eight over) while many big names were left to lick their wounds. Big names going home for the weekend include: Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Thomas Bjorn and Alvaro Quiros.

But Tiger is very much for the weekend and is looking calm and focused on the job in hand. He said: “It’s a wonderful place to be in. To have a chance to win your nation’s Open is wonderful.”

Tiger will play in the final group on Saturday alongside Jim Furyk, US OPen winner nine years ago. The 42-year-old Furyk said: “I realise that I have probably  got more good years behind me than I do in front of me. The window is not wide open any more. But I do still feel like have some game.”

Let battle commence!