Rose takes the lead, Tiger at bottom of the pack

[July 03, 2010]  NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) -- Maybe if he had not won the Memorial Tournament for his first PGA Tour victory last month, Justin Rose would be an emotional wreck.

Instead, he dusted himself off from a Sunday collapse last week and is right back in the lead.

Rose couldn't do anything right five days ago when he lost a three-shot lead in the final round of the Travelers Championship with a 39 on the back nine to shoot a 75. He hasn't done much wrong through two rounds of the AT&T National at Aronimink.

Sure, he missed a 12-foot par putt after hitting into the bunker on the 17th hole. But that was on Thursday, when the par-3 17th played as the toughest hole at Aronimink.

And it was his only bogey so far this week.

The Englishman was practically flawless Friday in getting around a tough course without a bogey for a 6-under 64, giving him a one-shot lead over Jason Day of Australia and Charlie Wi going into the weekend.

Better yet, Tiger Woods is out of the picture. Woods again struggled to make putts, wasted an opportunity from driving the ball as well as he has all year, and shot 70 to make the cut on the number, 10 shots behind.

"I'm driving it on a string right now, and that's fun," Woods said. "But if you don't make putts, no matter how good you hit the golf ball, you're not going to shoot good scores."

It's a different feeling for Rose.

"I've been playing well for a number of weeks, which is nice," said Rose, who was at 7-under 133. "OK, I had a bad Sunday (in Hartford). But it's nice to get that behind me immediately."

If there was a hangover, it didn't last long.

"I turned up here Monday morning feeling like I was a better player than I was on Sunday, because you learn," he said. "My game doesn't go away overnight. You have an experience like that, and if you ask yourself the right questions and if you deal with it in the right way, you become better."

Rose never had a par putt longer than 5 feet, and he seized the outright lead late in his round with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th, making it two straight weeks with the 36-hole lead. The idea now is to finish it off.

"Obviously, you have a day like today where everything goes your way and it's easy to think, 'Well, this course isn't that difficult.' But you just need to really keep your patience around here," Rose said. "I think nothing really changes tomorrow."

Day wasn't nearly that optimistic, missing fairways and greens down the stretch but dropping only one shot. And he made that up on the par-5 ninth with a tough chip below the green to about 5 feet.

Day, the 22-year-old from Australia, won the Byron Nelson Championship two months ago for his first PGA Tour victory. Wi is still searching for his first, and he got into contention by holing out from 166 yards in the 12th fairway for eagle.

Jeff Overton, who played in the morning, had a 68 and was at 4-under 136. Robert Allenby, who hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2001 in western Pennsylvania, had a 67 and was in the group at 3-under 137 that included Bo Van Pelt (68) and Ryan Moore, who bogeyed his last two holes for a 70.

Woods is nowhere near the lead, even if it looked as though he would get right in the mix.

Morning wind kept anyone from putting together a good score, and when Woods finally found some momentum with back-to-back birdies on the third and fourth holes -- the latter with a 30-foot birdie putt -- he was at 1 over and closing in on his goal of getting back to even par for the tournament. Then came a shot that covered the flag and landed 5 feet away.

Trouble was, Woods was trying to land his 7-iron on the par-3 fifth about 15 feet short of the hole because the green was so firm. It hopped hard and went into the rough behind the green. With a delicate chip, he advanced it only about 10 feet, still in the rough, then chipped some 7 feet past the hole and had to make that for bogey.

Woods one-putted five consecutive greens, a streak that ended in a surprising fashion. After a superb chip-and-run over a hump behind the eighth green that he nearly holed for birdie, he blocked his 30-inch par putt to drop another stroke.

A routine par allowed him to make the cut. Rose's round in the afternoon made Woods' prospects look even worse.

"I've just got to put together two good rounds and see where that leaves me," Woods said.

[Associated Press; By DOUG FERGUSON]

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