Jeff Sluman holds on to narrow advantage

American Jeff Sluman fired a one-under 71 to cling to the second round lead at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio on Friday, one stroke clear of a large group led by Tiger Woods.

Sluman, who began the day with a one-shot lead after a sizzling opening 65, maintained his advantage with a more modest effort at the Muirfield Village Golf Club, mixing two birdies with his only bogey through two rounds to sit on eight-under 136.

Lurking one shot back at 137 are Americans Woods, Jonathan Kaye, Harrison Frazar and Lucas Glover and Australian Nick O'Hern.

"I obviously am in a pretty good position, I certainly don't expect to be leading the event," said Sluman, who needed a sponsor's exemption to gain entry into the tournament. "If you look at the leaderboard there are a lot of guys out there like at six, seven under right now.

"I think you have to remain patient every day, every round. But there's a fine line of how patient you have to be.

"You know you've got to really go out and try to light it up right from the get go."

Playing for the first time since his record streak of 142 consecutive cuts at U.S. PGA Tour events came to an shuddering end at the Byron Nelson championship three weeks ago, Woods was quickly back in familiar form firing four birdies through his first seven holes.

But a bogey on the 17th, his first in two rounds, dropped the Masters champion from the top of leaderboard leaving him with a tidy four-under 68, one shot off the pace and in contention for a fourth Memorial title.

After a disappointing opening round 73 defending champion Ernie Els of South Africa had his game back on track with a one-under 71 but will need to produce something special over the weekend if he is to challenge, sitting eight shots off the lead on even-par 144.

World number one Vijay Singh made a shock exit, stumbling to a two-over 74 after an even more disappointing five-over 72 opening effort on Thursday to miss the two-over cut by a massive five strokes.

A three-time winner this season, it marked only the second time this campaign the hardworking Fijian has failed to make the weekend.

Tournament host Jack Nicklaus also failed to make the cut and made an emotional farewell, saying later that it was probably his final competitive round on U.S. soil.

Earlier this year Nicklaus said he had played his final Masters and that next month's British Open would be his last in championship golf.

Nicklaus had reserved the right to play in future Memorials but after firing a five-over 77 to leave him on 11-over and only Ben Curtis below him on the leaderboard the Golden Bear hinted he had played in his final competitive event in the United States.

"You know, it probably closes out my golf in the United States and regular tournament golf, more than likely," said Nicklaus. "I may come back here but I certainly wouldn't plan on it.

"You know, each time that I've felt like I was going to play halfway decent, I turned around and made a couple of bogeys in a row, but I guess that's pretty much what my golf game is any more.

"I don't think too many people cared about what my golf game was today, except for me, I suppose. I may be the only one.

"I felt all day, when I got on the first hole, I thought, well, this will probably be the last time I hit it off here.

"I don't really do that very much. Once I got into the round, I wanted to play golf.

"That's just the way I am. I wanted to shoot as good a score as I could."

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