US Tour:Tiger Woods held a three-stroke lead at the Buick Invitational - the event he has won for the last three years and five times in all - after 14 holes of his second round at Torrey Pines yesterday.
Switching to the easier North Course after an opening 67 on the South, Woods birdied the 13th and 16th and took over at the top spot when he got up and down from a greenside bunker on the long 18th.
He found himself behind trees with his opening drive on the outward half, but it was another par five and he conjured up a further birdie to reach nine under par.
If that was no surprise, his closest challenger certainly was. It was a player ranked 1,113 placesbelow him on the world rankings.
Tour rookie Kevin Streelman expected to be flying out of San Diego on Thursday but was called into the field when three players withdrew - the last of them Matthew Goggin just four minutes before he was due to tee off.
Streelman dashed to the tee, matched Woods's 67 and resumed yesterday with three more birdies in his first four holes.
This was just the seventh US Tour start of the 29-year-old's career - a career in which he has earned less than €25,000, about one-ninth of what Woods is estimated to have pocketed every day on and off the course last year.
"I was jittery more than nervous," Streelman said of his late call-up. I was just so excited, the adrenaline was flowing."
Last year he won one event on the Hooters Tour and three on the Gateway Tour and agonisingly finished second in The Ultimate Game in Las Vegas.
"That was pretty intense pressure, but more self-induced," he added.
Overnight leader Troy Matteson covered his first 10 holes in three over to fall into the pack on four under and Phil Mickelson was seven adrift at two under.
Meanwhile Woods and Rory Sabbatini continue to keep their distance off the course.
The pair have maintained a chilly silence since South African Sabbatini pulled out of the final round of last month's Target World Challenge, citing personal reasons.
Woods hosts the World Challenge, which raises money for the Tiger Woods Foundation, and says he has never been told by Sabbatini exactly what happened to force his withdrawal.
Despite his premature exit, Sabbatini earned a last-place cheque for $170,000, which he donated on Wednesday to the "United Through Reading" military programme in a ceremony on board the USS Boxer at San Diego's naval base.
