Soaked Tiger Woods just makes cut

Soaked to the bone and battling the chills, Tiger Woods narrowly made the second-round cut at the Nissan Open on Friday despite bogeying his last two holes for a three-over-par 74.

The world number one, who fought flu on his way to an opening 69, mixed five bogeys with two birdies in wet afternoon conditions at Riviera Country Club to finish on one-over 143.

That left him 11 strokes behind tournament leader Rory Sabbatini of South Africa, and right on the cutline. Eighty-three players qualified for the weekend.

American Woods, who won his first two tournaments of the year via playoffs, did not have an umbrella in his bag when a rainstorm blew across the course midway through the afternoon.

"It's been a while since I got caught out like that," he told reporters. "I'm pretty cold right now. It was a little wet and a little cold coming in.

"I was just trying to hit the ball solid and give myself some putts at it. I drove it great today but I hit my irons terrible.

"And I just couldn't shake anything on the greens either," added the 30 year old, who needed 31 putts on the day. "I had a hard time on the greens."

The 10-times major winner, who started on the 10th hole, missed a two-footer to save par at the 236-yard fourth and failed to make par putts from five and eight feet on eight and nine.

"It was a little frustrating, and I was getting soaked," said Woods, who had turned his cap backwards to prevent the rain from dripping off the brim.

"We were all just soaking wet today. It was just brutal."

Woods, who has not won the Nissan Open in 10 previous appearances, has technically missed just four cuts since turning professional in 1996.

He failed to qualify for the weekend at the 1997 Canadian Open and also at the 1998 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, when he withdrew after the rain-hit event was postponed by six months.

Last year, he ended a record run of 142 consecutive PGA Tour cuts when he missed out at the Byron Nelson Championship in May. He also missed the cut at the Funai Classic five months later.