Golf:England's Justin Rose fired six birdies in the day's lowest score to earn a one-stroke lead following the second round at the AT&T National while Tiger Woods barely made the cut.
Rose, who squandered a three-shot lead in the final round of last week's Travelers Championship, took advantage of benign afternoon conditions for a bogey-free six-under-par 64.
"I didn't really go out with the intention of going low. The round just evolved and happened," said Rose after signing for a seven-under 133 halfway total at Aronimink.
Just one shot back are Australia's Jason Day (68) and South Korea's Charlie Wi (65), while another 10 players will head into the weekend within four strokes of the outright lead.
Defending champion Woods, who made the cut with no shots to spare, offset four bogeys with four birdies for an even-par 70 that left him 10 shots off the pace.
Woods drove the ball nicely but missed a couple of short putts, including one from two feet at his penultimate hole.
"It is frustrating," said the world number one. "The first two days is the best I've driven it in a long time."
While Rose, who won the Memorial tournament in Ohio last month, hopes to hang onto his lead this weekend, he is also hoping to secure a late exemption into the British Open this month at St Andrews.
He is almost certain to qualify this year, regardless of where he places this weekend, since he made the top two on a mini money list based on the last five tournaments on tour.
Rose said not making the British Open in 2000 and again in 2005 when he was the first alternate, is not an experience he wants to go through again.
"You see all your buddies teeing it up and going out there and experiencing the Old Course (at St. Andrews) in an Open, and I was left on the driving range as a spare part. I never wanted to do that again."
Day, meanwhile, sprayed his tee shots into the rough more often than not, but a deft short game kept him in contention.
"I hit it pretty awful on the back nine," said the 22-year-old who won the Byron Nelson Championship in May. "It's going to be tough if I have to do this for the next two days. I'm going to work on a few things on the range this afternoon and try to straighten it out."
Wi was much steadier in a bogey-free round that included three birdies and an eagle with an eight iron from 166 yards at the par-four 12th.
Collated second round scores and totals in the AT&T National, Aronimink Golf Club, Pennsylvania, United States
(US unless stated, par 70):
133Justin Rose (Eng) 69 64
134Charlie Wi (Kor) 69 65, Jason Day (Aus) 66 68
136Charley Hoffman 69 67, Jeff Overton 68 68
137Nick Watney 66 71, J.B. Holmes 70 67, Kris Blanks 69 68, Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 67, Brian Gay 67 70, Bo Van Pelt 69 68, John Mallinger 67 70, Ryan Moore 67 70
138Arjun Atwal (Ind) 66 72, Joe Ogilvie 66 72, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 68 70
139Bryce Molder 69 70, Graham De Laet (Can) 70 69, Lucas Glover 71 68, Billy Mayfair 68 71, Ted Purdy 69 70, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 69 70, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 69 70, Steve Marino 68 71, Sean O'Hair 71 68, Jim Furyk 69 70, Andres Romero (Arg) 71 68, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 67 72, Nicholas Thompson 72 67
140Garrett Willis 71 69, George McNeill 71 69, Nathan Green (Aus) 71 69, Justin Leonard 71 69, Brett Quigley 67 73, Jimmy Walker 71 69, Jonathan Byrd 70 70, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 69
141Michael Letzig 67 74, Spencer Levin 72 69, Vaughn Taylor 70 71, David Toms 70 71, Derek Lamely 69 72, Bob Estes 68 73, Ben Crane 71 70, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 70, Marc Leishman (Aus) 71 70, Tim Petrovic 72 69, Brandt Snedeker 71 70
142Brendon De Jonge 70 72, Chris Stroud 71 71, Pat Perez 74 68, John Merrick 72 70, Robert Garrigus 73 69, Tim Herron 68 74, Chris DiMarco 72 70, Jeff Quinney 74 68, Tom Pernice Jnr. 69 73, Webb Simpson 72 70, Ricky Barnes 70 72, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 72 70, Briny Baird 70 72, Troy Merritt 69 73, Scott Verplank 71 71
143Tiger Woods 73 70, Scott McCarron 68 75, Jason Dufner 70 73, Michael Connell 77 66, Charles Howell III 71 72, Steve Elkington (Aus) 73 70, D.A. Points 74 69, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 73
The following players failed to make the cut
144John Senden (Aus) 73 71, Lee Janzen 73 71, James Driscoll 73 71, Greg Owen (Eng) 69 75, James Nitties (Aus) 75 69, Matthew Jones (Aus) 72 72, Jarrod Lyle (Aus) 74 70, J J Henry 70 74, Tom Gillis 68 76, Troy Matteson 72 72
145Bill Lunde 74 71, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 72 73, Chris Couch 75 70, Mark Wilson 73 72, Shaun Micheel 75 70, Dustin Johnson 71 74, Jeff Maggert 75 70, Boo Weekley 76 69, Rocco Mediate 71 74
146Jerry Kelly 74 72, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 73 73, Chris Riley 70 76, Kevin Sutherland 74 72, Joe Durant 77 69, Paul Goydos 70 76, Rickie Fowler 69 77, D.J. Trahan 74 72, Josh Teater 73 73
147Matthew Every 73 74, Cameron Beckman 72 75, Matt Bettencourt 72 75, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 75 72
148Chris Tidland 76 72, Chad Collins 73 75, Roland Thatcher 69 79, Scott Piercy 78 70, Alex Cejka (Ger) 74 74, Alex Prugh 72 76
149Brian Davis (Eng) 73 76, J.P. Hayes 76 73, Blake Adams 72 77
150Davis Love III 78 72, Matt Hill 77 73
151Michael Allen 74 77, Notah Begay III 75 76
152Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 78 74
154Mathew Goggin (Aus) 75 79
158Kevin Stadler 75 83