Tiger Woods remains a firm favourite for the US Open in San Francisco - and as he enters the weekend joint leader at one under par defending champion Rory McIlroy and world number one Luke Donald are nowhere to be seen.
Woods added a 70 to his opening 69 and, with surprise first-round leader Michael Thompson going from three clear to two behind with a 75, that was good enough to put him at the head of things at halfway.
Four years on from the last of his 14 majors, but back to winning ways three times in the last seven months, Woods has two Ryder Cup team-mates for company.
Jim Furyk, now 42 and nine years on from his victory in the event, shot 69 and then 45-year-old David Toms, whose major title came at the 2001 USPGA Championship, matched Woods' round.
By then McIlroy and Donald knew their fate. The 23-year-old - an eight-shot winner on a record 16 under last June - crashed out on 10 over after a 73, while the only player ahead of him in the world rankings was one worse following a 72.
For both the damage had been done on the opening day.
There is still a chance of the trophy going back to Northern Ireland for the third successive year.
Graeme McDowell, champion down the Californian coast at Pebble Beach in 2010, reached two under, but three bogeys in his last four holes left him two behind.
McDowell said: "It's just tough to have fun out there, I've got to be honest with you. It's just a brutal test of golf.
"I'm disappointed to bogey three of the last four, but that's what this golf course can do to you in a heartbeat - and if you had offered me one over par starting on the first tee yesterday I would have probably snapped your arm off for it.
"I'm very happy to be where I am. I made enough birdies to kind of offset some mistakes, which I think's key."
Woods stuttered with three successive bogeys from the fifth, but rolled in a 30-foot putt at the 10th and also birdied the short 13th.
At that point he had hopes of taking firm control, but he had to settle for pars on the 16th and 17th, both par fives, and had to get up and down from sand for his four at the 344-yard last.
"That was not easy," he said. "It got dried out and the wind was swirling a little bit.
"It was really, really tough and I just had to stay as patient as possible.
"I think I'm in a good spot. This tournament, you just keep plodding along.
"You're just playing for a lot of pars. This is not a tournament where we have to make a bunch of birdies.
"It's been a very long time since my swing felt this good - don't forget I went through all of last year hurt and hadn't been able to practise.
"Now it's becoming more consistent, day-in and day-out."
Justin Rose and Padraig Harrington will resume four over, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter five over.
Five-time runner-up Phil Mickelson, outscored by playing partner Woods both days, birdied the last for seven over and said: "I barely made the cut.
"Until the last putt (a 10-footer) I think the longest I made was four feet.
"Tiger's hitting the ball very well, Jim Furyk's extremely solid and I don't think they're going to come back too much.
"Tiger has great control of his ball-striking and is getting it in play."
The tournament even had an amateur out in front for a while, but 17-year-old American qualifier Beau Hossler felt the pressure and slipped back to three over with a 73.
In the end eight over was the cut-off mark and Simon Dyson, who a month ago did not expect to be playing because of a hip injury, and European Tour rookie Matthew Baldwin, who qualified at Walton Heath, squeezed through to the closing 36 holes.
Scotland's Marc Warren, playing the first major of his life like Baldwin, joined Westwood and Poulter on five over with a late 72.
McIlroy was spared the added angst that would have come if the nine overs had got in.
He was proved right that he needed a 15-footer for eight over on his final green. He missed it and then failed with the tiddler coming back.
Scot Martin Laird's closing bogey cost him, while others to miss by one were Masters champion Bubba Watson and England's Lee Slattery.
They would have stayed in the event if only the rule whereby anybody within 10 shots of the lead had not been scrapped this year.
China's 14-year-old Andy Zhang, the youngest ever player in the championship, bowed out by eight with rounds of 79 and 77, but was far from last.
Collated second round scores & totals (USA unless stated, par 70):
139 Tiger Woods 69 70, Jim Furyk 70 69, David Toms 69 70
141 Michael Thompson 66 75, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 69 72, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 72 69, John Peterson 71 70
142 Blake Adams 72 70
143 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 70, Jason Dufner 72 71, Beau Hossler 70 73, Matt Kuchar 70 73, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 71, Hunter Mahan 72 71, Aaron Watkins 72 71, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 72 71, K J Choi (Kor) 73 70
144 Steve Stricker 76 68, Nick Watney 69 75, J B Park (Kor) 70 74, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 73 71, Charlie Wi (Kor) 74 70, Michael Allen 71 73, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 75, Alistair Presnell (Aus) 70 74, Ernie Els (Rsa) 75 69, Hunter Hamrick 77 67, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 74 70
145 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 75 70, John Senden (Aus) 72 73, Branden Grace (Rsa) 71 74, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 76 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 74 71, Kevin Chappell 74 71, Webb Simpson 72 73, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 75, Kevin Na 74 71, Marc Warren (Sco) 73 72, Ian Poulter (Eng) 70 75, Jason Bohn 70 75, Lee Westwood (Eng) 73 72
146 Adam Scott (Aus) 76 70, K.t. Kim (Kor) 74 72, Darron Stiles 75 71, Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn) 75 71, Jason Day (Aus) 75 71, Keegan Bradley 73 73, Scott Langley 76 70, Morgan Hoffmann 72 74, Jonathan Byrd 71 75
147 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 76, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 74 73, Zach Johnson 77 70, Davis Love III 73 74, Alex Cejka (Ger) 78 69, Phil Mickelson 76 71, Bob Estes 74 73, Stephen Ames (Can) 74 73
148 Steve Le Brun 73 75, Joe Ogilvie 73 75, Casey Wittenberg 71 77, Patrick Cantlay 76 72, Matthew Baldwin (Eng) 74 74, Jesse Mueller 75 73, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 76, Simon Dyson (Eng) 74 74, Kevin Streelman 76 72, Bo Van Pelt 78 70, Jeff Curl 73 75, Rickie Fowler 72 76, Nicholas Thompson 74 74, Jordan Spieth 74 74
The following players failed to make the cut:
149 Robert Garrigus 72 77, Justin Hicks 75 74, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 75 74, Charles Howell III 72 77, Joe Durant 78 71, Bill Haas 76 73, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 78 71, Martin Laird (Sco) 77 72, Roberto Castro 75 74, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 74 75, Lucas Glover 76 73, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 77 72, Brian Harman 77 72, Bubba Watson 78 71, Mark Wilson 76 73, Lee Slattery (Eng) 79 70, Alberto Sanchez 72 77, Dustin Johnson 75 74, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 71 78, Casey Martin 74 75, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 74 75, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 75 74
150 Kyle Stanley 73 77, Martin Flores 71 79, Scott Piercy 75 75, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 76 74, Edward Loar 76 74, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 75 75, Chez Reavie 80 70, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 77 73, Ben Crane 77 73, Alexander Noren (Swe) 75 75, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 77 73, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 74 76, Jim Herman 78 72
151 Spencer Levin 74 77, Tim Herron 74 77, Anders Hansen (Den) 72 79, Gary Woodland 74 77, Brendan Jones (Aus) 76 75, Peter Lawrie (Irl) 74 77, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 78 73, Olin Browne 77 74, Luke Donald (Eng) 79 72, Tim Clark (Rsa) 77 74
152 Paul Claxton 75 77, D.A. Points 72 80, Samuel Osborne (Eng) 76 76, Anthony Summers (Aus) 76 76, Stewart Cink 77 75
153 Tadahiro Takayama (Jpn) 77 76, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 79 74, Colt Knost 75 78, George Coetzee (Rsa) 78 75, Matt Bettencourt 76 77, Peter Hanson (Swe) 78 75, Vijay Singh (Fij) 75 78, Robert Rock (Eng) 75 78, William Lunde 81 72, James Hahn 73 80, David Mathis 78 75, Shane Bertsch 78 75, Tommy Biershenk 74 79
154 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 75 79, Brooks Koepka 77 77, Cameron Wilson 77 77, Kyle Thompson 82 72
155 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 80 75, Brian Gaffney 77 78, Hunter Haas 81 74, Brice Garnett 78 77
156 Dong-Hwan Lee (Jpn) 77 79, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 80 76
157 Tim Weinhart 78 79, Andy Zhang (Chn) 79 78
158 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 81 77, Nick Sherwood 78 80
159 Scott Smith (Aus) 78 81, Mark Mccormick 82 77
160 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 85 75
162 Steve Marino 84 78, Dennis Miller 80 82
164 Cole Howard 80 84
168 Brian Rowell 86 82
