Tiger Woods just edges out Robert Allenby - Accenture Match Play Championship 2006

Tiger Woods, despite being wayward off the tee early on, fought back to edge Australia's Robert Allenby by one hole in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship second round on Thursday.

Woods, two down after six, turned his game around and the world number one coolly rolled in a seven-foot birdie putt at the last to seal victory.

Allenby, who birdied the par-three 16th to level, failed to reach the green in two on 18 and had to settle for a regulation par.

"I didn't get off to a good start today and Robert won the first two holes with pars," twice champion Woods told reporters. "The worst thing you can do in match play is have your opponent win holes with pars.

"I felt if I could turn the thing around, I could be up at the turn."

Woods was particularly pleased he was able to resolve his swing problems out on the course.

"It's something I couldn't do last year," he said. "Now I can figure it out, piece it together and understand what the fix is going to be. All of a sudden, boom, I hit great tee shots and iron shots."

Allenby held the early initiative after Woods carded three bogeys in the first five holes.

The 30-year-old American pulled his tee shot well left at the par-four first, missed the green to the left at the par-three second and found a fairway bunker off the tee at the par-four fourth before hitting his approach through the back of the green.

Although he birdied the par-five third after reaching the edge of the green in two and almost holing his chip from 65 feet, Woods was well short of the form that helped him cover the front nine in a blistering seven-under-par 29 against Canada's Stephen Ames the previous day.

In contrast, world number 33 Allenby reeled off nine consecutive pars in bright sunshine at La Costa Resort and Spa.

Woods, who crushed Ames by a record winning margin of 9&8 in the opening round, upped his game over the last three holes of the outward nine.

He picked up his second shot of the day at the par-four seventh despite missing the fairway to the right off the tee. His approach ended up on the left fringe of the green and he sank a 14-footer to trim the deficit to one hole.

At the par-five eighth, Woods found the middle of the fairway off the tee, drove his second shot into the back left greenside bunker and, following a poor escape, sank a 25-foot birdie putt to level the match.

"I chickened out on the bunker shot and left it way short," he said. "I wasn't in position to make birdie and he was.

"I made the putt and he didn't. That turned the momentum around big time, there and then."

Both players parred the ninth before Woods struck a superb approach to within two feet of the flag at the par-four 10th to forge ahead for the first time.

Allenby could manage only a par, his 10th in a row.

Champion in 2003 and 2004, Woods has an excellent record in the opening World Golf Championships (WGC) event of the year. He also reached the final in 2000 when he lost to Britain's Darren Clarke 4&3.

Woods is bidding to claim his third title in four starts this year, after winning the Buick Invitational in San Diego in late January before clinching the European Tour's Dubai Desert Classic the following week.