Katayama & Toms share halfway lead

David Toms carded a five-under 65 Friday to join Japan's Shingo Katayama in the lead after two rounds of the PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Tiger Woods flirted with missing his first cut in a major but fashioned two late birdies to qualify for the weekend, giving the two-time defending champion an outside chance at winning this event for a third straight year.

Toms and Katayama, who shot a 64 in the early afternoon, share a two-day total of nine-under-par 131, a mark that tied the 36-hole record for the PGA Championship.

Phil Mickelson shot 66 for a second straight day and finished in one shot off the lead at eight-under 132 with Bob Estes, who had a 65.

Jim Furyk turned in a 64 to tie for fifth place at six-under with Ernie Els (67), Steve Lowery (67), Dudley Hart (68), Korean K.J. Choi (68) and British Open champion David Duval (68).

Twenty-three of the top-25 players on the leaderboard posted rounds in the 60s over the receptive par-70 Highlands Course, but none went lower than Mark O'Meara.

The 44-year-old winner of two majors fired a course-record 63 Friday to match the 18-hole major championship record. He finished four strokes off the pace with Chris DiMarco (67), Paul Azinger (67), Jonathan Kaye (68), John Huston (68) and Niclas Fasth (69).

"It is a thrill to come in and shoot a score like that today," said O'Meara, who became the eighth player to shoot 63 in a PGA Championship and the 19th different player to post the score in a major. "I haven't played that well in the last year and a half, and the game has been a little bit of a battle."

O'Meara, whose bogey-free round included a 50-foot birdie at the par-three 15th, hasn't hoisted a trophy since winning both the Masters and British Open in 1998.

Later in the round the spotlight was on O'Meara's close friend and neighbor, Woods, whose first-round 73 put him in danger of missing just his second cut as a professional.

Although he missed three of his first four fairways, Woods was steady with four pars before rebounding from a badly pulled drive with an eight-foot birdie at the par-five fifth.

At the ninth, Woods spun his wedge approach back to three feet to set up a birdie that lifted him to one-over for the championship.

The good side of the cut was squarely in his sights.

But then Woods missed a makeable birdie try at the 11th. At the 12th he drove way right, costing himself a chance at a birdie on the only remaining par- five. His approach fell short into the front bunker at the 13th -- the shortest par-four on the course -- and he wound up with a bogey that dropped him back to two-over par.

Suddenly it looked as if Woods needed two birdies over the tough finishing stretch to extend his consecutive cut streak to 74 events.

Woods couldn't find a birdie at the 14th, where his attempt from 15 feet missed on the low side of the hole. He didn't look like he would have any luck at 15, either, when his tee shot at the 227-yard hole landed just off the front left of the green.

Needing to get down in two to stay alive, Woods drained a 45-foot birdie putt that would have ran 10 feet past the hole had it not hit the back of the cup.

Woods, obviously disappointed when his second shot to the par-four 16th finished pin high but 30 feet left of the target, stepped up and rolled in his second long birdie in as many holes.

Woods parred the last two holes to complete a three-under 67 and make the cut, as it turned out, by two strokes at even-par 140.

"It seemed tougher trying to make the cut than winning a tournament," said Woods, who missed his only cut as a professional at the 1997 Canadian Open. "For some reason I've been there more times on the other side."

Woods missed the cut in one major -- the 1996 Masters -- but that was before he turned pro later that season.

With the cut no longer a hurdle, Woods can focus on the task at hand -- making up a nine-stroke deficit over the next two days to become the first player since Walter Hagen in the 1920s to win three straight PGA titles.

Tabbed as an early starter on Saturday, Woods has only to look to his good buddy, O'Meara, for inspiration.

"Without a doubt," Woods said. "Low rounds can be had out there. I'll be one of the first going off in the morning. Hopefully I can take advantage of that."

Toms, an LSU graduate who reeled in his fifth PGA Tour victory in front of his home state fans in New Orleans in May, had a shot at the outright lead Friday but missed a 10-foot birdie at the final hole.

Katayama, ranked 50th in the world, earned his spot atop the leaderboard with a 20-foot birdie putt at the last. A star on the Japan Golf Tour, the 28-year- old Tokyo resident has won nine times on that circuit, including twice in just eight starts this season.

The cut fell at one-over 141 and included a total of 76 players.

Among those to advance was Rick Schuller, a pro from Willow Oaks Country Club in Richmond, Virginia, who shot 68-70 to tie for 26th at minus-two.

Schuller, just four shots behind the leaders late on Friday, stumbled a bit on the way in but was still the only one of the 25 club professionals entered in this year's tournament to make the cut.

"I won my state open and I played in some PGA Tour events back home, but this is it, this is my Augusta," said the 38-year-old Schuller.

Also at two-under 138 was first-round leader Grant Waite. The New Zealander struggled to a four-over 74 Friday, 10 shots worse than his opening score.

Headed home were Larry Nelson, the 1981 PGA champion at the Atlanta Athletic Club; Jerry Pate, the 1976 U.S. Open winner at AAC; Sergio Garcia, a favorite to win his first major; Tom Lehman, No. 10 and on the Ryder Cup bubble; John Daly, who won his first major as an alternate at the PGA Championship 10 years ago; and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Curtis Strange, who could use the weekend to keep an eye on players vying for the two at-large spots on this year's squad.

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