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CHICAGO: Tiger Woods seized a share of the halfway lead at the BMW Championship Friday with a four-under par 67 that put him alongside Mark Wilson on seven-under 135.
Wilson, who lives in Chicago, fired a second-round 66 to claim his share of the lead with Woods, who is a four-time winner at Cog Hill.
The two were one shot in front of a quartet of players - Ireland's Padraig Harrington, Australian Marc Leishman, South African Rory Sabbatini and American Bo Van Pelt.
Harrington posted his second-straight 68, Leishman and Van Pelt both posted 69s, and overnight co-leader Sabbatini posted a 70 for 136.
Woods opened with a bogey, but twice saved par from bunkers in the early going to keep his round on track before notching three birdies in a row from the seventh.
Wilson birdied his final hole to join Woods atop the leaderboard at a course where he practices regularly.
"This summer when I've been home, I've been primarily coming out here because I thought it made sense to get ready to see the new golf course," Wilson said of the layout renovated by Rees Jones.
The leaders will be paired together on Saturday for the first time since their championship match in the 1992 US Junior Amateur, which Woods won.
"We go back a long way," Woods said.
At the seventh, Woods made a 12-foot birdie putt from the fringe. At eight, Woods' shot from 133 yards spun back from the fringe and left him a four-footer for birdie.
"I thought I had to carry it back to the hole," Woods said. "I knew I could never hit the ball past the flag in the air with that club, so I went ahead and took the chance of throwing the ball up in the air."
The US$7.5 million tournament is the third event in the US PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoff series.
The field includes the top 70 in the playoff points list, but only 30 will advance to the Tour Championship in two weeks, where the playoff series titlist will be crowned with a 10 million-dollar payout at stake.
Woods and Harrington are among the top six players already assured of a trip to the Tour Championship. Wilson, at 41 in the standings, wasn't sure just what he needed to punch his ticket, but he knew a victory would be enough.
I'll be going for that," Wilson said. "If I fall a little short, then the consolation prize would be Atlanta. And that would be good."
- AFP/yb
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