Woods Adds To the Lead, Takes Away Some Drama

On Windy Day at Hazeltine, His Low Score Is a Rarity

CHASKA, Minn., Aug. 14 -- At this point, midway through the 91st PGA Championship, it is scarcely worth acknowledging the two-day accomplishments of one Tiger Woods. What he is doing here, at gusty Hazeltine National Golf Club, is no doubt notable, because he holds a four-shot lead on the rest of the field, and he is making the outcome feel inevitable.

But Woods's feats should be appreciated through the widest lens possible, because they are historic, and each of his major victories becomes another chapter in what might go down as the most decorated career in all of golf. So momentarily move aside Woods's 2-under-par 70 in Friday's second round, a round that got him to 7 under for the tournament. If there is to be a compelling route to what would be Woods's 15th major championship, it will have to involve another character, someone to play the foil, if only for the 36 holes that remain.

Someone must be able to dismiss the fact that Woods has won all eight majors he has led at the midway point. Someone must be able to understand that the fact Woods has won the last 12 times he held the 36-hole lead means nothing when they tee it up Saturday.

Anyone out there?

"Those things I did 12 times doesn't do a damn bit of good tomorrow," Woods said. "You have to place your golf ball around the golf course. You've got to play and execute."

You just have to do it better than the best player in the game. Maybe the stats don't mean much to Woods. Might they mean much to those that could fell him?

"What do you think?" said Padraig Harrington, who played the first two rounds with Woods. "It's self-evident. We're all aware of his ability to lead from the front. He gets better from the front. He can play his shots all day. He can choose when to be aggressive, and when not to be aggressive. I think he likes that position."

The cast of characters who might offer a threat comes from all over the world and includes all manner of accomplishments. Five players are in a cluster at 3 under: a Fijian, an Irishman, a South Carolinian, an Australian and an Englishman. The group includes two players who have won three majors apiece -- Vijay Singh, who shot an even-par 72 and will play with Woods in Saturday's third round, and Harrington, who might have threatened the lead, but made three straight bogeys on the back nine.

The group includes one player, American Lucas Glover, who has only recently joined that club of major winners, taking the U.S. Open in June at Bethpage Black. It includes another, Brendan Jones, who said he "felt really comfortable out there," at least in part because "I wasn't thinking it was a major championship."

And it includes another, Ross Fisher, who was right in the midst of contention during the final rounds of both the U.S. and British Opens earlier this year, and is now confident he can close one out. He once played with Woods in the final round at the Dubai Desert Classic on the European tour.

"I went toe-to-toe with him," Fisher said. "I wasn't fazed by it at all, and I wanted to go out there and prove to everyone that I belong out here."

The problem: Woods shot a 65 to win the tournament, and Fisher countered with a 71.