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While Thursday's opening day was full of novelties - a Tiger treble bogey, an unheard of leader, a rejuvenated Greg Norman and a crazy 11 by Jerry Kelly at the first – the real drama started to emerge on Friday.

It began with defending champion Ernie Els fighting back into contention in the morning and ended with the big names starting to queue up near the top of the leaderboard.

As well as Els, Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and Nick Price all finished the day inside the top 20 while world number one Davis Love moved to the top of the leaderboard. That's seven of the top 11 in the world rankings all right in the thick of contention.

And although some of the lesser lights are still shining, the tournament looks as if it's developing into a battle of the big guns – just as it did 10 years ago here when Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer finished 1-2-3.

Many will feel that Tiger is exactly where he wants to be. On the shoulders of the leaders and ready to pounce.

But history suggests otherwise. Tiger's major wins have come when he has dictated from the front. Playing catch-up, it seems, is not his game.

And although the four shots he trails Love by at the halfway stage seems nothing on a course as tough as this, Tiger backers should have reason to be concerned.

As well as the galaxy of world stars hunting the lead, Europe now has a genuine contender too. Thomas Bjorn played some excellent golf on Friday and dropped just one shot in his impressive one-under-par 70. It appears he has put behind him the quadruple bogey eight he took at the 17th hole on Thursday.

Saturday is traditionally described as `moving day' in the majors and it will be fascinating to see which of the leading players can take the tournament by the throat.

Love has the chance to put daylight between him and the chasing pack but defending champion Els, after his best-of-the-day 68 on Friday, could well be the one to watch.