Tiger Woods takes control

What was shaping up as a showdown between golf's best two players suddenly looked like another runaway by Tiger Woods.

Woods birdied six of the 11 holes he played Saturday morning to complete a 7-under 65 in the second round and seize a three-stroke lead at the halfway point.

"I got into a really good rhythm," Woods said. "You never would have known that if you had seen me warming up this morning."

Woods, among 61 players who failed to finish the round Friday, was at 9-under 135 and three strokes clear of Stewart Cink.

Ernie Els, the No. 2 player in the world playing against Woods for the first time this year in a 72-hole tournament, had been the clubhouse leader at 5 under when play was suspended by darkness.

He was at 138, and will play in the final group with Woods and Cink.

Els, who completed his 65 late Friday afternoon, knew the lead wouldn't hold. His only hope was that the rest of the players - Woods, in particular - didn't get too far away.

Four strokes isn't that much, but it seems that way when Woods is on top, especially on a course like Bay Hill.

Woods is trying to become the first player since Walter Hagen (1924-27) in the PGA Championship to win the same tournament four years in a row, and the first player ever to do that in a stroke-play event.

Asked why he likes Bay Hill so much, Woods smiled.

"I have no idea," Woods said. "Every since my junior days, I liked playing here."

It certainly showed Saturday morning, when Woods returned at 7 a.m. to find greens surprisingly soft and the pins more accessible than they have been all week.

After making four birdies in seven holes Friday afternoon, Woods' 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th swirled around the cup and disappeared for birdie. His approach into No. 18 covered the flag and stopped 3 feet away.

The previous two days, his shot into No. 18 would have hopped hard and high off the green and probably rolled off the back.

"We definitely got the good end of the draw," Woods said.

He twice chipped close for birdies on the par 5s, but his finish was particularly strong. He hit into 7 feet for birdie on the tough, par-3 seventh hole, then holed about a 10-footer on the 467-yard ninth hole.

Els was joined at 5-under 138 by Aaron Baddeley (70), Jonathan Kaye (70) and Rod Pampling (67).

Ty Tryon, 18, who missed most of last year with mononucleosis and tonsilitis, shot a 67 and was in a large group five strokes out of the lead at 140.

Tryon made the cut for only the second time as a professional. The other was last year at the Tampa Bay Classic, which was played opposite a World Golf Championship.

The cut was at 3 over par, nine strokes higher than last week at the Honda Classic, where the cut of 6 under tied a PGA Tour record.

Among those with another weekend off were David Duval (79-75), Sergio Garcia (77-72) and Trevor Immelman, the 23-year-old South African who was a co-leader after the first round.

Immelman hit two balls into the water on No. 18 to take an 8, then hit two into the water on the par-5 sixth hole and made 9. He wound up with an 80 and became the first player in the 25-year history of the tournament to go from the lead to missing the cut.

The last player on tour to do that was Kirk Triplett in the 2001 Nissan Open.

It proved to be a long and eventful second round for Woods.

During the five-hour rain delay Friday, his girlfriend collapsed outside the clubhouse from food poisoning and dehydration. Woods accompanied Elin Nordegren, 23, to the hospital in an ambulance.

He said she was kept overnight to receive fluids, and released Saturday morning.

Cink, who needs a victory this week to help his chances of getting into the Masters, had his second consecutive 69 and was at 138.

Any other year, Els might have figured it wasn't his week. He opened with a 74 and was lucky the score wasn't worse.

His response Friday showed why the Big Easy might be in for a big year.

Els started with four straight birdies, waited through a five-hour rain delay and kept pouring in birdies for a 65.

"I don't want to beat myself up too bad," Els said. "Yesterday's round was yesterday. Today, I wanted to play golf again, play my shots. My swing is feeling good. I like this course, and I don't want to get too hard on myself and start disliking it, you know?"

Els can't find too much wrong with the season.

He already has won twice in Hawaii and twice in Australia. He came close in Singapore and Dubai. And in his first stroke-play tournament against Woods, the 32-year-old South African showed he might be up to the task.

"I'm playing good at the moment," he said. "I cannot play Tiger Woods. I can't control what he does."

Still, a four-stroke deficit won't make it easy.

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