LEMONT, Ill. (AP) – 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, Woods knew he was safe. Sure enough, when play was completed 61/2 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.

“I honestly think he can tie one of his hands behind his back and make him play left-handed, and he would still make the cut.”

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.”

Woods has gone from flirting with the cut to kissing the trophy before, winning the 2000 Canadian Open after being one shot better than the cut with four holes to play. But this isn’t the way to quiet the talk about his slumping game, especially with the British Open looming.

Sure, he has three top-5 finishes in his last four starts and is fourth in scoring average. But he’s 0-for-8 in the majors, has won just twice since his victory at last year’s Western and is doing things on the course that make him look like a mere mortal.

Like the par-4 No. 3 on Friday. Using an iron off the tee, Woods hit his drive way left and into the rough. He appeared to rush his second shot, and it clipped the willow and left him with an even worse lie, in a gully of rough with a tree in front of him. “My adventures began from there,” Woods said.

A vicious hack moved his ball only a few feet. He finally punched out, then chipped onto the green and made a 10-foot putt for the double-bogey. He hit his next tee shot left again, into another clump of rough behind trees.

He still had a chance to save par, but his 19-foot putt rolled about 18 inches past the hole. That left him at 3 over for the tournament – and two shots on the wrong side of the cut line.

But just when he seems finished, Woods puts on one of those amazing displays that only he can pull off. On the sixth hole, he rolled a 60-foot uphill birdie putt so true it looked as if it was on a track to the hole. The crowd roared as it dropped in, and Woods lifted his putter in triumph and touched the tip of his cap, a brief smile of relief crossing his face.

He followed with a 10-footer on the next hole to get back to 1 over.

“I figured if I birdied the last five, I should put myself back at 2 under. That would have put me at five off the lead,” he said. “That’s kind of how I was focusing.”

He missed a birdie on No. 8 when his 15-foot putt burned the left edged of the cup. And he seemed headed for more trouble off the tee again on the par-5 No. 9, pushing his shot right and into a trap. His second shot clipped a tree and dropped straight down, leaving him 260 yards from the green.

But he made a beautiful recovery, hitting a 2-iron to 10 feet from the hole.

“Get there!” Woods yelled as the ball took off, and a few seconds later, whoops of appreciation told him it had.

He had to settle for par when his birdie putt slid 11 inches past the hole, but it was good enough.

“It’s pride and playing. And always giving your best all the time,” Woods said when asked to explain his streak. “There are many times where I probably should have missed, but I made it just through determination. Or luck. Sometimes the cuts actually come back toward me.

“It’s just one of those things where you’ve got to always play hard.”

Divots: Greg Norman, playing at the Western for the first time since 1996, missed the cut at 8-over 150. … Mike Small, Lucas Glover and Scott Hoch had holes in one. … Casey Wittenberg missed the cut in his professional debut, shooting a 10-over 152. … A teenager set off an air horn during Roberts’ backswing. The boy ran, but was chased down and caught.

AP-ES-07-02-04 2023EDT