KEY POINTS:
Tiger Woods took nothing for granted after grabbing a four-shot lead over his closest challengers in the Buick Invitational second round yesterday.
The world No 1, bidding for his sixth victory at Torrey Pines and the 62nd of his remarkable PGA Tour career, accepts anything can happen over
the next 36 holes.
"That's why they're not handing out the trophy today," Woods told reporters after firing a seven-under-par 65 on the North Course for a 12-under total of 132. "You've just got to keep going forward. If they handed out the trophy today, then it would be over and no big deal.
"But since we have so many more holes to play, anything can happen. You've got to keep pushing, keep going forward and keep making birdies."
Woods, making his first tournament appearance on the 2008 PGA Tour, has one eye on the weather with rain forecast for the weekend at Torrey Pines.
"Tomorrow will be important to go out there and play well, maintain the lead and hopefully increase it," the 32-year-old American said. "But I really want to play well tomorrow because you don't know what's going to happen in this tournament come Sunday, with the forecast.
"You've got to make sure you try and get your rest because it's going to be a long, long weekend. It [the tournament] might be going until Tuesday. The whole idea is to stay fresh.
Woods ended the second round four strokes in front of little-known American rookie Kevin Streelman, despite struggling with his tee shots for the second day in a row.
"I didn't quite drive it as well as I needed to today, but all my drives started off on line, which is good," he said after finding only six fairways out of 14. "I just over-shaped them.
"But my iron game was good and I made a bunch of putts, which can sometimes be a pretty tricky task out there. I got a couple good bounces on the greens, which was nice."
Meanwhile, a poor six-over par second round 78 saw New Zealander Tim Wilkinson miss the cut at the Buick Classic.
Wilkinson, 29, shot a three-under-par 69 on the north course at Torrey Pines in the first round but found the south course on which he played the second round a tougher proposition.
Joint 13th overnight, Wilkinson returned a scorecard containing a double bogey, five bogeys and a single birdie which saw him total 147 for the two rounds. The cut was made at 145. This is the second cut Wilkinson has missed in three PGA tour events this season.