Golf:Tiger Woods birdied his final hole to complete a second round five-under-par 67 that moved him into a share of the lead with American compatriot Nick Watney at the halfway stage of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Shane Lowry lost ground on the leaders with a round of 74 to finish on four under but remains the leading Irish player in the field. Rory McIlroy moved to three under following a 68 while Padraig Harrington reached red figures and will go into the weekend on one under.
Woods, the world number one, had spurned a raft of birdie chances early on another sunny day at the Sheshan International but made no mistake with a short putt at the 18th and joined first round leader Watney, who shot a 70, on 10-under for the tournament.
World number two Phil Mickelson picked up his sixth birdie of the day at the last for a 66 to stand a stroke behind the leaders, alongside compatriot Ryan Moore (69) and Spain's Alvaro Quiros (66) in a share of third.
Woods, runner-up on both his previous visits to Shanghai, backed off his opening drive a couple of times because of cameras clicking in the gallery but recovered his composure sufficiently to start his round with a birdie.
There followed a succession of missed birdie putts before an errant drive at the sixth left him bashing a rubbish bin with his club in frustration.
The error resulted in the sole blemish of his round but he finally got a putt down at the ninth and came home in four-under-par, the highlight of his back nine a 20-ft chip-in for birdie from the rough above a greenside bunker at the 16th.
"Today got off to a good start and I birdied the very first hole," Woods told reporters. "But after that, I didn't really make any putts. I had certainly some looks at them and didn't really capitalise on anything.
"It certainly was a little bit frustrating, but the guys weren't running off and hiding. I knew if I could just play the back nine at three under par... I figured that would probably be a pretty good number. And I did better than that."
Watney, who fired a course record equalling 64 in the first round, also finished strongly with birdies at his last two holes to make up for a double bogey at the fourth.
"Whatever the lead is at, that's not going to win the golf tournament so I need to go out and keep playing well and keep making birdies to have any shot," the 28-year-old Californian said. Mickelson, the winner here two years ago, chipped-in twice in a round which also got better towards the end, with birdies at three of his last four holes.
"I'm pleased with where I put myself after two rounds," the lefthander added. "There's a lot of guys there and I'll need to play very well on the weekend, but I'm in a good position."
Anthony Kim hit a huge five wood on his way to eagling the 18th for a 69, which left him alone in sixth place on eight-under as Americans dominated the leaderboard.
South African Ernie Els hit a hole-in-one at the par three sixth hole but a couple of double-bogeys undid his good work and he registered a 71 for a share of 23rd on three-under.
Collated second-round scores
(Irl & Gbr unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72)
134Nick Watney (USA) 64 70, Tiger Woods (USA) 67 67
135Phil Mickelson (USA) 69 66, Ryan Moore (USA) 66 69, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 66
136Anthony Kim (USA) 67 69
137Pat Perez (USA) 68 69
138Brian Gay (USA) 69 69, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 68 70
139Koumei Oda (Jpn) 70 69, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 72 67, Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe) 67 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 70 69
140Francesco 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 Lowry66 74, Paul Casey 67 73
141Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 72, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 69 72, Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 69 72, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 72 69, Simon Dyson 72 69, Rory McIlroy73 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 71, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 71, Ian Poulter 72 69, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 72, Lee Westwood 70 71
142Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 74 68, Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 71
143Oliver 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 Harrington74 69, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 75 68
144Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 72
145Jeev 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
146Jerry 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
147Steve Marino (USA) 77 70, Mark Murless (Rsa) 71 76, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 73
148Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 74 74, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 76 72, Nick Dougherty 68 80, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 71
150Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 77, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 81 69, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 76
151Anthony Kang (USA) 75 76
152Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 74 78, Wei-Huang Wu (Chn) 74 78
154Jean Hugo (Rsa) 78 76, Thomas Levet (Fra) 77 77
156Nathan Green (Aus) 79 77
