WGC - Bridgestone Invitational 2006

Woods was positively delighted to drop just one shot at his final hole Friday and he has a one-shot lead over Davis Love III after two rounds of the $7.5 million Bridgestone Invitational.

The defending champion, Woods ended an otherwise flawless second round in extraordinary circumstances when he airmailed his 9-iron approach shot from the rough all the way over the green at the par-4 ninth. His ball landed on a cart path, bounced onto the Firestone clubhouse roof and apparently came back to earth in a delivery area on the other side.

The area was not out-of-bounds, so amid great confusion, officials deemed that a 23-year-old male employee who was unloading pies from a truck had found the ball and subsequently disappeared, which meant Woods was entitled to a free drop equidistant from the hole, at the nearest point of relief.

That point was deemed to be on the adjacent first hole, 84 yards from the hole, from where Woods pitched onto the green and two-putted for bogey.

"I thought for sure the ball must have been out-of-bounds," Woods said. "Then it wasn't. On top of that, I thought we had to somehow find it.

"You've got cameras all over your face and people yelling and screaming, then you had the rules officials trying to figure it out because we're getting so many conflicting stories of what was going on, one cameraman seeing one thing, another seeing another thing, one spectator saying one thing, a locker room attendant saying another thing. We're trying to decide what was true and what wasn't."

The officials defended their decision to grant Woods a free drop, even though none of them saw the employee who made off with the ball.

"When I got to the clubhouse, several people were telling me things that had happened, that it was on top of the roof, that it was in the air duct, whatever, and we came to the conclusion that it actually went over the clubhouse," PGA Tour rules official Dillard Pruitt said. "A security officer told me that a chef behind the clubhouse who was unloading a truck saw a kid with a ball in his hand, put it in his pocket and left the area. That's when I decided the ball was gone, that Tiger was going to be able to put another ball in play."

When the dust had settled, some 40 minutes after his tee shot, Woods signed for a 6-under-par 64 and a 9-under 131 total. Love shot 65 to jump into second place at 8-under 132 in the World Golf Championships event.

First-round leader Adam Scott (71) bogeyed the 16th and 17th holes to fall three shots behind, in a tie for third with Jim Furyk (65).

The late drama overshadowed a brilliant round by Woods, who birdied his first four holes and added three more birdies on his inward half. He owns this event, with four wins in the six times it has been held at Firestone, and it would take a brave person to bet against his adding a fifth title on Sunday.

"I hit it well today," Woods said. "I did some great work on the range last night to fix a couple of things from yesterday's round, and came out today and really controlled my (ball) flight.

"I made some putts early, didn't make anything in the middle of the round, but overall I'm very pleased. I feel comfortable here, and anytime you feel comfortable you're going to feel confident."

Love's 65 was almost lost in the shuffle, and it came too late to win one of Tom Lehman's two captain's picks for the United States Ryder Cup team. Still, there is no bad time for a 65.

"I know I'm playing well, but I've just got to put four (rounds) together," Love said. "Tomorrow, the last thing I need to think about is how good Tiger is playing and what a nice streak he's on, and how I need a win. I've just got to concentrate on playing golf."

That won't be easy, not with the world's greatest player gunning for his fourth successive victory, a streak that started at last month's British Open and includes a win last week at the PGA Championship.