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| April 13, 2003 | Sunday | Safar 10, 1424 |
Weir stretches lead, Woods makes cut narrowly
AUGUSTA, April 12: Tiger Woods flirted with his first missed cut in six years as Canada’s Mike Weir strengthened his grip on the U.S. Masters after the completion of the rain-delayed second round on Saturday.
In glorious sunshine at Augusta National, overnight pacesetter Weir carded a four-under-par 68, stretching his lead to four shots at six-under 138.
Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, two behind Weir at the start of the day, completed a roller-coaster round of four-over-par 76 to finish in second place at two under overall.
Phil Mickelson, chasing his first major title on his 43rd start, carded a 70 to share third at one under with U.S. amateur champion Ricky Barnes, who returned a 74.
Woods, bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive green jacket at Augusta National, had been eight shots off the pace at the start of the day but, in his own words, was right where he needed to be with “a chance in the tournament”.
The world number one parred his first two holes of the day, the second and third, but then stumbled at the par-three fourth, where he twice found bunkers before two-putting from 20 feet for a double-bogey five.
He then dropped another shot at the par-three sixth to fall back to five over, and 11 behind leader Weir, before a welcome birdie at the par-four seventh.
But Woods missed a three-foot putt to save par on the par-five eighth and needed to hole out at his last from a similar distance to card a one-over 73 which just kept him in the tournament at five over.
His only professional missed cut was the 1997 Canadian Open and the last time he failed to play the final two rounds of a major was the 1996 Masters as an amateur.
The 27-year-old Woods has now gone 102 tournaments without missing the cut, the third best record on the PGA Tour after Byron Nelson, on 113, and Nicklaus, on 105.
SUCCESSIVE BIRDIES: Weir, who reeled off successive birdies before play was finally halted in gathering gloom on Friday, bogeyed his second hole of the morning to slide back to five under — and three ahead of the chasing pack.
But the consistent Canadian, twice a winner on the PGA Tour this season, birdied the par-five 15th to forge further ahead of his challengers as the fluctuating leader board below him reflected the up-and-down nature of play.
Northern Irishman Clarke, who began the day two behind Weir with eight holes to play, fell back immediately, finding water on the 490-yard 11th to run up a double-bogey six.
He dropped another shot at the par-five 15th but a birdie three on 17 lifted him into second place on his own.
Mickelson, four shots off the lead overnight, was typical of the erratic scoring on quickening greens in the spring sunshine and bogeyed the par-three 12th, his first hole of the day.
The left-hander hit back immediately with birdies on the two par fives — 13 and 15 — to move ahead of Clarke into second place.
But the 32-year-old Californian then double-bogeyed the 170-yard 16th after pushing his tee shot into a bunker to slip behind Clarke into third at one under.
Twice champion and Augusta specialist Jose Maria Olazabal carded a 71 to finish at even-par 144, level with four others.
Leading second round scores (U.S. unless stated; a-denotes amateur):
138 Mike Weir (Canada) 70 68
142 Darren Clarke (Britain) 66 76
143 Phil Mickelson 73 70
144 Brad Faxon 73 71, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) 73 71, Paul Lawrie (Britain) 72 72, Vijay Singh (Fiji) 73 71, David 71 74
145 Jeff Maggert 72 73, Billy Mayfair 75 70, Nick Price (Zimbabwe) 70 75, Jonathan Byrd 74 71, John Rollins 74 71, Phil Tataurangi (New Zealand) 75 70, a-Hunter Mahan 75 70, KJ Choi (South Korea) 76 69, Ernie Els (South Africa) 79 66, Jim Furyk 73 72, Charles Howell III 73 72
146 Rich Beem 74 72, Loren Roberts 74 72, Shingo Katayama (Japan) 74 72,
147 Bob Estes 76 71, Craig Parry (Australia) 74 73, Jeff Sluman 75 72, Tim Clark (South Africa) 72 75, a-Ryan Moore 73 74, Nick Faldo Britain) 74 73, Mark O’Meara 76 71, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 73 74, Rocco Mediate 73 74, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 69 78, Pat Perez 74 73, Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 76 71
148 Kenny Perry 76 72, Chris Riley 76 72, Fred Couples 73 75, Jerry Kelly 72 76, Scott McCarron 77 71, Davis Love III 77 71
149 Kevin Sutherland 77 72, Robert Allenby (Australia) 76 73, Scott Verplank 76 73, Adam Scott (Australia) 77 72, Justin Rose (Britain) 73 76, Tiger Woods 76 73
150 Scott Hoch 77 73, Toru Taniguchi (Japan) 71 79, Eduardo Romero (Rrgentina) 74 76, Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 77 73, Shigeki Maruyama (Japan) 75 75
151 Tom Lehman 75 76, Lee Janzen 78 73, Steve Elkington (Australia) 75 76
152 Larry Mize 78 74, Tom Watson 75 77
153 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 76 77, Stuart Appleby (Australia) 77 76
154 Chad Campbell 77 77, Kirk Triplett 82 72, Ian Woosnam (Britain) 80 74, Steve Lowery 78 76, Colin Montgomerie (Britain) 78 76, Niclas Fasth (Swecen) 81 73, Toshi Izawa (Japan) 78 76
155 Craig Perks (New Zealand) 80 75, Fred Funk 79 76, Sandy Lyle 82 73, Ben Crenshaw 79 76, Fuzzy Zoeller 77 78, Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 78 77, Jay Haas 79 75, Justin Leonard 82 73
156 Thomas Levet (France) 79 77, John Huston 72 83, John Cook 78 78
157 Ray Floyd 77 80, Tom Byrum 82 75
160 Peter Lonard (Australia) 78 82
162 Seve Ballesteros (Spain) 77 85, Gary Player (South Africa) 82 80, Jack Nicklaus 85 77, David Duval 79 83
163 a-Alejandro Larrazabal (Spain) 82 81
164 Charles Coody 83 81
166 Arnold Palmer 83 83
167 a-George Zahringer 82 85
172 Tommy Aaron 92 80—Reuters
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