Woods’ cut streak hits 126

Tiger Woods watched as his ball clipped the top of a large willow tree and fell 30 yards in front of him. Another swing moved the ball a measly few feet. Finally, on the third try, he punched out to the fairway, still 40 yards shy of the pin.

If ever there was a day when his extraordinary cut streak was going to end, this was it. But as he’s done time and again, Woods wriggled his way out of danger Friday, holing a 60-foot putt for the first of back-to-back birdies that kept his weekend plans at the Western Open intact.

“It’s just a matter of always playing hard,” he said. “The old saying goes, ‘You can’t have the switch on and off.’ You’ve got to have it always on, and that’s how I’ve always played.”

He finished with a 73 that put him at 1-over 143 for two rounds — right on the projected cut line. But with the wind already starting to blow in Lemont, Ill., Woods knew he was safe.

Sure enough, when play was completed 6 1/2 hours later, the line was 2 over and Woods had made his 126th consecutive cut, the longest streak in PGA Tour history.

“You would think surely there would come a situation where he was so far against the wall that it would be near impossible, and the guy finds a way to do it,” said Charles Howell III, who shares the lead with Matt Gogel and Steve Lowery.

As rocky as his first two rounds were, Woods isn’t out of this thing, either. Howell (67), Gogel (64) and Lowery (68) are only seven strokes ahead, at 6-under 136. First-round leader Loren Roberts is three strokes back after a 4-over 75.

“Loren has a chance to run away with this thing if he wants to,” Woods said. “If he doesn’t do that, there are a lot of guys right there with a chance.”

Jacobsen in three-way tie for lead

Peter Jacobsen’s smile let everybody know he was back.

Returning to competitive golf for the first time since undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his hip in April, Jacobsen shot a 6-under 64. He was tied with Jerry Pate and Bobby Wadkins for the first-round lead at the Long Island Classic in East Meadow, N.Y., on the Champions Tour.

“Nothing like a 2-month vacation from golf to build up the juices,” Jacobsen said.

Pate didn’t have a bogey in his round, while Wadkins had eight birdies and two bogeys.

Defending champion Jim Thorpe, who had a second-round 60 last year, opened with a 65 and was one stroke in front of Mike Hill.

Mickelson to skip International

Masters champion Phil Mickelson won’t play next month in the International, the first time in five years he will take the week off before an American major.

Mickelson, who has never missed the International since he turned pro in 1992, said he wants to spend the first week of August getting ready for the PGA Championship, to be played Aug. 12-15 at Whistling Straits, a links-styled course along Lake Michigan.