Sutherland & Kelly top leaderboard

Kevin Sutherland and Jerry Kelly shared a two-stroke lead after the second round of The Players Championship at the TPC at Sawgrass on Friday.

World number one Tiger Woods, who had slumped to an opening three-over 75, maintained his consecutive cut streak by shooting a three-under 69 for a level-par total of 144 in the tournament widely regarded as the fifth "major".

Sutherland followed his opening 66 with a 69 to finish nine under on 135. Kelly recorded a second-round 66 to tie his fellow American for the lead.

South African Ernie Els (69) shared third place with first-round leader Adam Scott (72) of Australia on 137. Fiji's Vijay Singh and Ireland's Padraig Harrington were a further stroke adrift on 138.

Bob Burns, Duffy Waldorf, Jeff Sluman and Phil Mickelson finished on 139, five under.

Woods, who started well with an eagle at his second hole and a birdie at his third, has made 120 successive cuts, the most in PGA Tour history. Friday's halfway guillotine came at 146.

"I was trying to shoot 66," Woods told reporters. "Now I need to go out there tomorrow and post a good, solid number and put myself where I have a chance Sunday afternoon.

"I take great pride in what I do on the golf course, I go out there and give absolutely everything I've got. Some days it's not very good, other days it's pretty good."

Sutherland, 39, has never finished better than a tie for 42nd in his six previous visits to Sawgrass and has missed the cut three times. But this week he has already made 11 birdies and only two bogeys.

"I made just about all the momentum putts today that I needed to make and I'm hitting my irons very well," Sutherland said.

"I think the driver needs to be better. I was hitting the rough a few times and the rough is going to get longer and it's hard to play out of."

With only one career win, the 2002 WGC-World Match Play Championship, Sutherland is in a rare position.

Kelly, 37, has only hit 24 of 36 greens but has managed to get up and down 12 times to play the first two rounds without a bogey, the only player to do so.

"It was starting out as very conservative and then as I started playing better, I started feeling like I could do a little bit more," he said.

"Then it got to the point where I actually tried to do too much more than I should have. So I started hitting it poorly again and gave myself a chance at a couple of bogeys," added Kelly, who has two PGA Tour victories to his credit.

Defending champion Davis Love III, fighting back problems, fired a 68 to atone for his opening 77 and safely make the cut on 145.

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