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Stroke of luck gives Woods boost

Tiger Woods hit a shot of ``pure luck'' to make bogey, sparking a run of three closing birdies and a 4-under 66 on Friday that put him back into contention at the halfway point of the AT&T National -- the tournament he's hosting.

Woods' wedge from bottom of a steep slope behind the sixth green landed 6 feet from the hole, and he made the bogey putt to match Mike Weir for the best score of the day and get to 1 under for the tournament, six strokes off the lead.

Stuart Appleby and K.J. Choi shared the lead, both having somewhat tamed the course with rounds of 66 and 67 for a 7-under total of 133.

"I'm back in the tournament," Woods said. "And hopefully I can shoot another round in the 60s tomorrow and move my way up the board."

The turnaround from Woods' miserable 73 on Thursday was stark. He made only two bogeys instead of seven. He needed only 25 putts instead of 34. He didn't have a single three-putt. He made six putts longer than 8 feet -- including a 22-footer at No. 12 -- after missing everything from 8 feet and beyond the day before.

Appleby, who made a 16-foot putt to save par at No. 18 and has only two bogeys in the tournament, isn't about to concede that he has a comfortable lead over the world's No. 1 golfer.

"You always expect him to be there, so it becomes pretty much standard practice," Appleby said. "It's like playing the British Open, expecting it to blow every day. You don't have to look up and know it's windy; you don't have to look up and know Tiger is going to be there."

The course was expected to play tougher over the weekend with higher temperatures firming up the fairways and greens. It was already tough enough for top-five players Phil Mickelson (147) and Adam Scott (148), both on the wrong side of the 4-over 144 cut line.

Mickelson, rusty after a layoff due to a wrist injury, was doomed by a 7 at the par-5 16th, where he had to call in a rules official after back-to-back shots: one that landed against a tree and a chain-link fence, and another that landed by a golf cart tire. Carts were aplenty on the hole as part of the Secret Service contingent following US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice, who took up golf about two years ago, said she wasn't in danger of being hit by one of Mickelson's wayward shots.

"It was fine," she told The Golf Channel. "But I recognized that wicked hook from my own game."
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