Woods hopes of victory look distant

Tiger Woods's hopes of picking up a major for the fifth consecutive year were hanging by a thread after he battled his way to a two-over-par 72 in the second round of the U.S. PGA Championship on Friday.

Solid but unspectacular, the world number one's effort was a modest improvement on his opening round 74 but left him nine shots adrift of surprise leader Shaun Micheel (68), who finished on 137, three under.

Woods has plenty of work to do if he is to join Walter Hagen as the only men to capture at least one major in five successive years.

"My whole game felt better," Woods told reporters. "I just never put myself in position to make birdie putts.

"Overall, I just didn't hit the ball in birdie range. Heading into tomorrow, I need to give myself some looks at the putts.

"You know that you have to be very patient and that if you can somehow get back to near par, you'll have a chance of winning the tournament."

Without a major since last year's U.S. Open, Woods began the round eight behind co-leaders Phil Mickelson and Rod Pampling, and in serious danger of missing the cut for the first time in 28 career majors as a professional.

The 27-year-old American arrived at the season's final major having survived the cut in 108 consecutive events, five shy of the record of 113 held by Byron Nelson.

A grim-faced Woods, U.S. PGA champion in 1999 and 2000, strode purposefully on to the first tee to a huge ovation and cracked a near-perfect drive for a better start to his round than a day earlier, when his opening shot drifted left into the rough.

But he was unable to mount a charge through the early holes, Oak Hill's tight fairways, diabolical rough and tricky greens offering few opportunities to build any momentum.

When his tee shot sailed long over the green into the deep rough on the par-three third, Woods's shoulders slumped.

His spirits were lifted briefly with a birdie on the par-five fourth but he followed up with a bogey at the fifth.

Woods then ground out 10 straight pars on Oak Hill's treacherous sun-baked layout but his hard work was wasted when he bogeyed two of the last three holes.

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