Woods - stunning 63 at Southern Hills.

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Tiger Woods shot a magnificent seven-under-par 63 to take a stranglehold on the 89th USPGA Championship at Southern Hills, moving two clear of his closest challenger at the halfway stage.

The world number one was in simply majestic form with all aspects of his game firing as he equalled the lowest-ever round in a major championship and bettered his previous best of 64 at Troon back in 1994.

Woods produced eight birdies as he stormed through the field and ended the day on six-under, two strokes ahead of fellow American Scott Verplank who is all on his own in second at four-under.

Perhaps the only disappointment for Woods was that he could not create major history with a 62, especially given that he had very presentable birdie chances to do so at 16, 17 and above all 18 when his putt for a three chased around the cup and somehow stayed above ground.

However, that was the only slight blip on a day when the American stamped his authority on proceedings in trademark style, putting himself right on track for major number 13.

Indeed, the quality of his display was put into context by the fact that only eight men now stand under-par.

Verplank ensured he did so with a sparkling 66, a shot behind him on three-under are 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and Canadian Stephen Ames who shot 68 and 69 respectively, while Woody Austin (-2), John Senden (-1), Niclas Fasth (-1) and Pat Perez (-1) complete the octet.

There were other outstanding rounds with Irishmen Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke also taking route 66 in Oklahoma to haul themselves to level-par and +3 respectively.

However, it was largely a disappointing day for the European challengers with Open Championship protagonists Padraig Harrington (+2) and Sergio Garcia (+5) falling off the pace after promising first rounds.

It was a similar story for first-round leader Graeme Storm who, after his blemish-free 18 holes on Thursday, contrived to make eight bogeys and a double-bogey as he slumped to a 76 that leaves him at +1.

Paul Casey shot a level-par 70 to leave himself at +2, while compatriots Luke Donald and Justin Rose are one shot worse off following rounds of 71 and 73.

But the day really belonged to just one man as Woods swept all before him with an wonderful display of ingenuity and distance control.

The world number one set the tone at the first with a delightful long iron that fed down to the hole to leave six feet for birdie that he polished off with the minimum of fuss.

Further birdies followed and four and then five despite finding a bunker off the tee, before his only bogey of the day at seven which was the result of another trip to the sand.

He recovered in perfect style by picking up further shots at nine and ten to move to three-under, while a fabulous up-and-down from the sand at 12 rescued par to maintain his momentum.

He followed it with another for birdie at the par-five 13th which took him into a share of the lead and then pulled clear with a birdie two at the short 14th and a nonchalant chip-in from just off the putting surface at 15.

At this stage Ogilvy was five-under and seemingly intent on matching Woods, but two closing bogeys hit the Australian's hopes and he will now start Saturday's round three-back.

Indeed, Woods' charge almost gave Friday's proceedings the feel of a Sunday as he moved into an ominously strong position at the top of the leaderboard and it will now take the bravest of punters to back against him finishing there in 36 holes' time.

Collated second-round scores (USA unless stated, par 70):

134 Tiger Woods 71 63

136 Scott Verplank 70 66

137 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 69 68, Stephen Ames (Can) 68 69

138 Woody Austin 68 70

139 Pat Perez 70 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 68, John Senden (Aus) 69 70

140 John Daly 67 73, Arron Oberholser 68 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 72 68, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 68, Camilo Villegas (Col) 69 71, Paul McGinley (Irl) 74 66

141 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 71, Troy Matteson 72 69, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 73 68, Graeme Storm (Eng) 65 76

142 Anders Hansen (Den) 71 71, Kevin Sutherland 73 69, Stewart Cink 72 70, Heath Slocum 72 70, Paul Casey (Eng) 72 70, Will MacKenzie 72 70, Phil Mickelson 73 69, Sean O'Hair 70 72, KJ Choi (Kor) 71 71, Corey Pavin 74 68, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 69 73

143 Tim Herron 75 68, Darren Clarke (NIrl) 77 66, Bob Tway 71 72, Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 71, Ryan Benzel 71 72, Nathan Green (Aus) 75 68, Mike Small (Eng) 73 70, Brett Quigley 76 67, Justin Rose (Eng) 70 73, Luke Donald (Eng) 72 71, Lee Westwood (Eng) 69 74, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 76 67

144 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 70 74, Bart Bryant 74 70, Tom Lehman 73 71, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 72 72, Simon Dyson (Eng) 73 71, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 73 71, Hunter Mahan 71 73, Kenny Perry 72 72, Joe Durant 71 73, Shaun Micheel 73 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 73 71, Ken Duke 73 71, Ian Poulter (Eng) 71 73

145 Billy Mayfair 76 69, David Toms 71 74, Todd Hamilton 73 72, Charles Howell III 75 70, Chad Campbell 77 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 75, Boo Weekley 76 69, Frank Lickliter II 70 75, Steve Stricker 77 68, Lucas Glover 70 75, Colin Montgomerie (Sco) 72 73, Steve Flesch 72 73, Brian Bateman 71 74, Anthony Kim 73 72, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 75 70, Richard Green (Aus) 72 73, Brett Wetterich 74 71, Brandt Snedeker 74 71

---------------Following player missed the cut----------------------------------

146 Brad Lardon 70 76, Davis Love III 72 74, Ben Curtis 75 71, Mark Wilson 69 77, Vijay Singh (Fij) 75 71, J J Henry 71 75, Jim Furyk 75 71, Robert Allenby (Aus) 74 72, Markus Brier (Aut) 69 77, Rich Beem 76 70, Jonathan Byrd 74 72, D.J. Trahan 72 74

147 David Howell (Eng) 75 72, Jeff Sluman 74 73, Joe Ogilvie 77 70, Tom Pernice Jnr. 73 74, Philip Schmitt 79 68, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 73 74, Justin Leonard 75 72, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 73 74, Bradley Dredge (Wal) 73 74

148 Dean Wilson 75 73, John Rollins 73 75, Paul Goydos 75 73, Jose Coceres (Arg) 71 77

149 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 74 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 76 73, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 77 72, Tim Thelen 74 75, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 76 73, Mike Weir (Can) 77 72, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 78 71, Kelly Mitchum 77 72, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 75 74, Gregory Havret (Fra) 75 74

150 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 76 74, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 74 76, Vaughn Taylor 76 74, Zach Johnson 74 76, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 74 76, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 78 72

151 Charley Hoffman 75 76, Mark Calcavecchia 79 72, Bo Van Pelt 77 74, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 81 70

152 Jeff Quinney 78 74, Chris DiMarco 79 73, Eric Axley 75 77, Ted Purdy 76 76, John O'Leary (Irl) 75 77, Fred Funk 76 76

153 Nick Watney 78 75, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 77 76, Soren Hansen (Den) 74 79, Nick Dougherty (Eng) 79 74, Steve Elkington (Aus) 75 78, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 80 73, Andres Romero (Arg) 81 72, Ryan Moore 79 74

154 Robert Gaus 78 76, Tim Clark (Rsa) 82 72

155 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 75 80, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 77 78, Kevin Burton 79 76, Mark Brooks 79 76, Johan Edfors (Swe) 79 76, Scott Hebert 79 76

156 Jerry Kelly 79 77, Butch Sheehan 82 74

157 Matt Call 81 76, William Amundsen 76 81

158 Denis Watson 74 84, Bob McGrath 80 78, Chip Sullivan 78 80, Bubba Watson 79 79, Don Yrene 80 78

159 Micah Rudosky 83 76

160 Erik Wolf 83 77

161 Greg Bisconti 82 79

164 Matthew Seitz 83 81