Friday Dramatics

Phil Mickelson fired a 65 Friday en route to a three-shot lead at the 87th PGA Championship. But Tiger Woods made sure Lefty didn't steal all the drama by birdieing No. 18 to barely make it into the weekend on the cut line.

By Marino Parascenzo, Special to PGA.com

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- The second round of the PGA Championship ground away Friday through the heat and humidity at long, demanding Baltusrol Golf Club, unfolding in two dramatic story lines:

1. Would Phil Mickelson keep his lead. Yeah, would he expand it?

2. Would Tiger Woods pull himself together in time, scurry back from the brink of the abyss and make the halfway cut?

Mickelson played early in the day, Woods later, and everything else in between was so much cereal-box material.

The answers were yes to Mickelson (he leads second-place Jerry Kelly by three shots after two rounds) and yes to Woods. But just barely yes. He made the cut by the skin of a thrilling birdie at the final hole, after a thrilling, nearly lethal bogey at the 17th.

The drama is more theatrical than real. Mickelson separated himself from the field with a 5-under 65 and is at 8-under 132 for the tournament. Woods is tied for 62nd, 12 strokes away from him, having scratched out a 1-under 69 to make the cut just on the money, at 4-over 144. But what a finish.

Woods was the champ getting up off the canvas. He had a wastrel's front nine, missing greens, fairways and putts for a 2-over 36. His situation was so perilous, in fact, that when he bogeyed No. 8, he was 15 shots behind Mickelson, who had finished, and three shots above the cut line.

Then he regrouped on the back nine, holing clutch putts for four birdies and a bunch of pars. He made the most gallant gesture of the tournament to date, daring to try to be the first to reach the green of the 650-yard monster 17th.

He had 296 yards to the hole for his approach. He took a mighty swipe. The ball came down in a bunker to the left, pin-high but on a back downslope. He had no shot.

He had to play out sideways into thick rough, then pitch on, and he two-putted for a bogey 6. He recovered just enough at the par-5 18th, hitting the green in two, missing his eagle try but getting the birdie that just got him in under the wire.

So Woods' chances for his third PGA Championship title, his third major of the year and the 11th major of his career are still alive. But only just. He's going to have to play great golf, and Mickelson and a whole crowd of people in front of him are going to have to fold.

"Well, I've snuck in before and won the tournament," Woods said. "But if there's any tournament that you can move you way up the board, it's a major championship."

So Woods had stolen the show, but not the way he wanted to. Earlier in the day ?

Mickelson shook off a double-bogey at No. 1 and two later bogeys to fly his high, soft fade into a dazzling 65 that had seven birdies and an eagle at the par-5 18th, his ninth hole. He hit a driver and 4-iron to 20 feet and dropped the putt.

That put him at 8-under. He was running off with the thing. But that was Baltusrol's soft underbelly, the back nine. The front was a different matter.

Mickelson gave the eagle right back with a double-bogey at No. 1, his 10th hole, where he went from rough to rough, chipped to 25 feet and two-putted for his 6. It was a tussle from there -- birdies at No. 3 from 40 feet, No. 5 from six, and after a bogey at the sixth, at No. 8 from 25 feet. He was trading haymakers with the course, shaking off one to fire his own.

"I think that's what I was most proud of," Mickelson said. "Everybody's going to make mistakes, but sometimes it's hard to forget about it and let it go. So I think the thing that I was most pleased with was the way I was able to let go of some bad shots and forget about them and move on."

And so Mickelson's chances for his first PGA Championship, his second career major, and his fourth victory of the season are quite bright.

They also depend on his being able to stay ahead of Kelly, who matched his 65 for a 135 total.

Kelly, 31, enjoyed his finest day ever in nine PGA Championships, and surprised everyone by leapfrogging into second place.

"I'm at the PGA," Kelly said. "Not supposed to do that here. At least, that's what the paper says."

But that's what a bogey-free 65 will do for a guy. He had birdies from 10 and 5 feet on his first nine (the back), and then three on his back nine, on putts of 8 and 20 feet, and a bunker hole-out at No. 9. Kelly is not a power hitter, so his round was one made up of long-iron approaches and sharp putting. He needed just 27 putts.

"I kind of made it effortless, which is what I've been looking for," said Kelly. And now he's paired with Mickelson, the Mighty Lefty, in Friday's third round. His prospects?

"Phil, he can shoot at the pins," Kelly said. "But there's not that many times where I have less than a 7-iron in. I'm not in the lead -- I'm close to the lead. Execution of the game plan.

"Execution of what you're trying to do with your swing. Keeping your mind calm. It's not rocket science, but some of the simplest things in this game are the toughest things to do," he explained. "I'm going to try to make it extremely simple and see how well I can stick to it."

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