With only three players in the top 20 still alive, the Match Play Championship suddenly looks more like the Quad Cities Classic than an elite tournament of the top players in the world.

For Tiger Woods and the other 15 survivors, it's starting to feel more like the Ryder Cup.

"This is nerve-wracking stuff," Fred Couples said after holding on for a 1-up victory over Scott Hoch. "I don't even know who I play tomorrow, but this stuff makes me so nervous I will be choking like a dog."

At least he'll be around for a chance to experience what Greg Norman did Thursday, when he blew a 3-up lead with four holes to go and lost on the third extra hole to Eduardo Romero of Argentina.

"That's match play," Romero said. ``Anything can happen.''

For the second day in a row, anything did.

One day after five of the top seven players made an early exit from La Costa Resort, they were joined by David Duval, Nick Price and Justin Leonard, leaving the No. 1 Woods as the only player in the top 10 still in the hunt for the $1 million first prize.

"Am I really?" Woods said. ``Wow.''

Wow, indeed.

Duval ruined the delicious possibility of No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the final by losing to Bill Glasson. Price stumbled to a bogey on the final hole to lose to Jeff Maggert, while Leonard ran into the "Smiling Assassin" -- Shigeki Maruyama, who dusted off the former Open and U.S. Amateur champion.

Woods could have joined them. He escaped going extra holes when Bob Tway missed a 10-foot par putt on the 18th hole. He clasped the back of his neck with both hands, looked toward the heavens, puffed his cheeks and let out a huge sign of relief.

"To be able to survive a match like this and get through to the next round ... I'm relieved, no doubt about it," Woods said. "As soon as you let down, when it's over, then you feel it. I really did expend a lot of energy out there."

Of the top 64 players in the world who started on Wednesday, Woods, Phil Mickelson (12) and Fred Couples (13) are the highest seeds left. Friday morning's third-round matches include Glasson vs. Andrew Magee, John Huston against Patrick Sjoland and Maruyama against Loren Roberts.

"We knew some top seeds would lose, but we didn't expect 90 percent of them to lose," Mickelson said.

Duval had only three chances to take a lead on Glasson, the last coming on No. 12. He bogeyed the 13th to give Glasson a 1-up lead and never recovered, losing 2 and 1.

"I could have done better," Duval said. ``I'm ready to go home.''

Woods will play Stewart Cink in the third round Friday morning, with a possible quarterfinal pairing Friday afternoon against Maggert or Bernhard Langer. That's assuming Woods gets by Cink. Just two days of the inaugural event already has proven that there is no such thing as a sure thing.

And as Norman proved yet again, no lead is safe.

Norman, in his first big tournament since his return from shoulder surgery, showed he may be back to his old self. He blew another big lead with the kind of shots that have cost him so many major championships.

He was 3-up over Romero when they walked off the 14th green, but then lost the next two and missed an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 17 that would have closed out the match. Romero hit a 7-iron into a foot on the last hole to square the match -- "I think it was the best shot of my life," he said. -- and then won on the third extra hole with a 25-foot birdie putt.

"This is what match play is all about," Norman said. ``Congratulations to him."

Couples and Mickelson could still meet in the quarterfinals, and might find Woods waiting in the semi-final.

On the other side of the bracket, the highest-ranked player left is No. 27 John Huston.

"The big debate has been who's No. 1 and who's No. 2," Maggert said after a par on the 18th gave him a 1-up victory over Price. "The rest of the 64 couldn't care less what the ranking is. When I play well, I can beat anybody in this field."

Proof of that was Tway, the 1986 PGA champion who played well enough to beat almost anybody -- except Woods.

They halved only two holes on the front nine, trading birdies like two heavyweights. Tway took a 1-up lead at the turn when Woods chopped his way to a bogey on the par-5, and he kept his lead over the next two holes.

Woods evened the match with a 7-iron from 188 yards into 12 feet on the par-5 12th. Tway's eagle putt from the front fringe grazed the right lip -- a sight that haunted him on the back nine -- and Woods rolled in his putt.

Tway missed birdie putt on the 13th, and Woods took the lead for good on No. 14 with another 12-foot birdie putt. Tway had birdie chances on the 16th and 17th, but dropped his putter in disbelief when one hung on the lip and the other turned away at the last second.

Tway had one last chance to send the match to extra holes. Despite hitting into the greenside bunker, Woods' approach landed in shaggy grass on the edge of a bunker and he muffed the chip and took bogey.

Tway had a 10-footer for par, but the ball once again turned away.

"Tiger won a close match because he is playing good," Couples said. ``I won a close match because I was lucky."