Rose leads as Woods squeezes through

Justin Rose, the halfway leader at the AT&T National, is trying to kill two birds with one stone.

The Englishman would love to post his second victory in three starts on the US PGA Tour, but just as importantly wants to qualify for this month's British Open at St Andrews.

Rose took another step towards both goals when he carded a brilliant six-under-par 64, the day's best score in the second round at demanding Aronimink on Friday.

"I didn't go out with the intention of going low, so to speak. The round just evolved," Rose said after posting a seven-under 133 total, one stroke ahead of Australian Jason Day (68) and South Korean Charlie Wi (65).

Tiger Woods made the cut with nothing to spare, carding a 70 to fall 10 strokes off the lead.

Rose recorded his first PGA Tour victory at the Memorial last month, and took the lead into the final round in Hartford last week, before fading to finish equal ninth.

He heads a mini-money list of the past five tournaments that ends this week, with the top two over that span earning late exemptions to St Andrews.

Rose is all but assured of staying in the top two, no matter where he finishes here, but he would rather control his own destiny and is clearly relieved after missing the past two Opens at St Andrews in 2000 and 2005.

"A few weeks ago, the Open looked like being a disaster again for me," he said, referring to the fact he didn't look like being exempt. "I missed 2005, when I was the first alternate, and that was one of the hardest days of my life.

"You see all your friends, people teeing it up and experiencing the Old Course in an Open and I was left on the driving range as a spare part.

"I wanted to do that again. I just backed myself to play well somewhere and it looks like it's happened."

Day, meanwhile, struggled off the tee but used a deft short game to make just a single bogey.

"I hit it awful today, only five fairways, but at least my putting was there," he said before heading to the range to iron out the kinks in his swing.

The highlight of Wi's round was an eagle with an eight-iron from 166 yards at the par-four 12th. He also had three birdies.

"There were a couple times when I went for the pin and went over the green, and I could have really kicked myself, but I kept telling myself to be patient, and I was able to roll some putts in today," he said.

Defending champion Woods drove the ball well but missed a couple of short putts to dig himself into a deep hole.

"No matter how good I drive it, the putts aren't going in," he lamented. "I've just got to putt better. I drove the ball on a string the last two days and haven't gotten anything out of it.

"If you don't make putts, no matter how good you hit the ball, you're not going to shoot good scores."

Woods talked about the difficultly of having all facets of the game firing at the same time, something every amateur player can relate to.

"It's always something," he said. "I hit it awesome, putt awful. I putt great, hit it awful."

This is only Woods' sixth event since he returned to competition at the Masters in April, after taking nearly five months off in the wake of revelations of marital infidelity.

The AT&T National is his only official start between last month's US Open and the British Open in a fortnight.