Tiger Woods rallies with 68 to make cut

In danger of missing the cut after opening with a 71 on the easier of the two courses being used for the tournament, Woods rallied with a four-under-par 68 at a sun-drenched Torrey Pines.

The world number one birdied five of the first 10 holes on the difficult South Course and eagled the par-five 13th to put his ugly start behind him.

"Today felt a lot better," Woods told reporters after finishing at five-under 139, seven strokes off the lead. "I did some work last night and some work this morning, went out there and felt really good.

"Hopefully, this weekend I can play a little bit better."

Competing in his first PGA Tour event of the season after an extended end-of-year break, Woods had struggled with his new Nike SasQuatch 460 driver in the first round.

He found only one fairway out of 14 but managed to birdie all four par-fives on the North Course to limit the damage.

After deciding to revert back to the driver he used in practice earlier this week, he delivered a very different performance in the second round, finding eight fairways and reaching 14 out of 18 greens in regulation.

"I was trying to get the ball in play." Woods added after sacrificing 15 yards of the tee with his driver change. "If I had hit the one (driver) I hit yesterday, I would have hit it a lot further.

"But when you're trying to keep the ball in play, it's nice to have a little spin."

Chasing his fourth victory in eight years at Torrey Pines, Woods struck his opening drive straight down the middle at the 452-yard first to set up a regulation par-four.

His first move of the day came at the par-three third where he holed a monster uphill birdie putt from 40 feet, the ball curling from right to left before dropping into the cup.

After salvaging a par at the fourth, where Woods had to muscle his second shot out of thick rough to the right of the fairway, he picked up another stroke at the par-four fifth after a superb approach to just four feet.

He then split the middle of the fairway off the tee at the par-five sixth and reached the green in two to set up birdie number three.

Rock-solid pars followed on seven and eight before he birdied the 613-yard ninth, hitting a delightful pitch from the greenside rough to within three feet of the flag.

At the par-four 10th, he drove 300 yards off the tee and struck his approach to six feet for his fifth birdie.

Although the U.S. Masters and British Open champion bogeyed the par-three 11th, where he missed the green to the left, he eagled 13 after powering his drive 342 yards, reaching the green in two and holing a 60-foot putt.

Having got to seven under for the tournament, though, that was to be the end of Woods's stirring charge.

He faltered at the next hole, pushing his tee shot well right on his way to a bogey-five, and another dropped shot followed at the par-three 16th where he found the left greenside bunker off the tee.

He had a chance to birdie the par-five last with a putt from eight feet but failed to finish his round in style.