By The Associated Press

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The local fans made Tom Watson feel every bit like the hometown favorite.

Delighting the biggest gallery on the course, the popular Kansas City native shot a 4-under-par 66 Friday on the short-but-unforgiving Prairie Dunes layout and seized a 1-stroke lead after two rounds of the U.S. Senior Open.

Watson, who makes his home about 4 hours northeast of the course, had 11 one-putt greens. He recorded two bogeys and six birdies to go to 4-under 136 for the tournament.

Bunched one stroke behind him were Morris Hatalsky, Bob Gilder, Mark James and defending champion Allen Doyle.

“This certainly is a homer crowd right here,” said Watson, a crowd pleaser whenever he competes in the area. “It’s been great. I saw quite a few people here I hadn’t seen for a while. They all came to Prairie Dunes to see me play. It’s fun to play in front of your home crowd.”

Hatalsky shot a 67 while Gilder birdied the last two holes for a 66 that tied Watson and Peter Jacobsen for the day’s best round.

James and Doyle squandered a chance to catch Watson when they both missed par putts of about 8 feet on their finishing holes.

Doyle, whose closing-round 63 last year vaulted him to the championship, had a 68 to go with his first-round 69 and is 11 under for his last three rounds of U.S. Senior Open competition.

First-round co-leaders Jay Haas and Dave Barr had terrible days after shooting 67 on Thursday.

Haas, the Champion Tour’s top money winner, four-putted No. 14 for a double-bogey on the short par-4 and wound up with a 75 – leaving him six strokes off the lead.

Barr, whose 67 was his first sub-par round in a U.S. Senior Open, kept finding the high rough that flanks every hole and creeps in close to most greens. That sent his score soaring to 76.

Jacobsen’s 66 left him two strokes back at 138, followed by D.A. Weibring and Bruce Lietzke at 139.

Woods rebounds, Mickelson struggles

LEMONT, Ill. – Tiger Woods rebounded from a rough opening round at the Western Open, but Phil Mickelson stumbled badly. And Stewart Cink jumped into contention with one of the best rounds ever at the tournament.

Woods shot a 4-under 67 during the second round Friday, a day after struggling for a 1 over. Still, he was seven shots behind leader Daniel Chopra, who carded a 5-under 66 to hold a two-stroke lead over Vijay Singh at Cog Hill.

Chopra, who began the day in a four-way tie for the lead, is at 10 under. Singh shot 67 to stand at 8 under. Mickelson, who went into the second round one stroke back, shot a 3-over 74 and was 1 under for the tournament.

But it was Cink who impressed after a 6-under 29 on the front nine tied the tournament’s nine-hole record. His 64 for the round was one off the mark for 18 holes. That put him at 7-under 135 and in a tie for third with Trevor Immelman and Joe Ogilvie.

Wie, Sorenstam advance in women’s match play

GLADSTONE, N.J. – Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam moved another step closer to a final-round showdown in the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship.

With her mother shouting “Good shot, Michelle!” after each booming drive, the 16-year-old Wie beat friend Christina Kim 3 and 2 on Friday in the second round. The top-seeded Sorenstam beat Heather Young, also 3 and 2.

Wie advanced to a third-round match against LPGA Championship winner Se Ri Pak, while Sorenstam will play former Duke star Brittany Lang. Pak beat Lorie Kane 1-up and Lang eliminated Seon-Hwa Lee 3 and 2 on the hilly Hamilton Farm course.

Sorenstam won the first two holes against Young, but dropped Nos. 4-5 and made the turn all square. The Swedish star then won Nos. 10, 12 and 13 and halved the next three holes with pars to end the match.

Sorenstam began the week with a four-shot playoff victory over Pat Hurst on Monday in the U.S. Women’s Open in Newport, R.I., then beat Virada Nirapathpongporn 3 and 2 in the first round Thursday.

“I’m on such a high that I’m not even thinking that I should be tired,” Sorenstam said. “I’m just looking forward to coming back tomorrow.”

Wie won all four par-5s with birdies, finished with seven birdies and had two three-putt bogeys in 16 holes. She’s playing her fourth event in five weeks, a welcome change from her usual light tournament schedule.

“I like this a lot better,” Wie said. “It’s a lot harder to play one tournament, have more than a month off and then play in another. I really look forward to the summer where I have a lot of tournaments, where I can play almost every week.”

With about 400 people following Wie and Kim, Wie won the par-5 second with a 10-foot birdie putt and took a 2-up lead with a two-putt par on the par-3 third.

Kim rebounded with a birdie on the par-4 fifth, halved the par-4 sixth with a birdie and pulled even with a 13-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh. Kim then birdied the par-4 eighth to take the lead.

“Obviously, we’re pretty close and it’s tough to put that out of your mind,” Wie said. “You just have to think that she’s just another opponent and try your hardest.”

Wie tied it with a birdie on the par-5 ninth, took the lead with another birdie on the par-5 11th and went 2-up with a birdie on the par-3 12th. Kim got a hole back with a par on the par-4 13th after Wie missed a 3-foot putt, but Wie countered with a birdie on the par-5 14th. They halved the par-4 15th – with Wie topping Kim’s 18-foot birdie putt with a 12-footer – and Wie ended the match with a par on the par-4 16th.

“I wasn’t able to capitalize on the par-5s,” Kim said. “I gave myself a lot of opportunities, but it just didn’t pan out.”

Juli Inkster remained in position for a possible quarterfinal match against Sorenstam, beating Catriona Matthew 4 and 3. The eighth-seeded Inkster will face Marcy Hart – a 4-and-3 winner over Liselotte Neumann – on Saturday morning, with the survivor advancing to face the Sorenstam-Lang winner.

In the bottom half of the upper bracket, fifth-seeded Paula Creamer beat defending champion Marisa Baena 5 and 3 to set up a third-round match against Morgan Pressel, a 2-and-1 winner over 2005 runner-up Meena Lee.

“Unfortunately, I did not hit the ball very well today and Paula played unbelievable,” Baena said. “She played great and she beat me.”

The 19-year-old Creamer and 18-year-old Pressel played each other many times in match play in their junior careers.

“We’ve known each other for a very long time,” Pressel said. “She an unbelievable player and we’re both tough competitors. I think it’s going to be a very good match. We’re going to have to make lots of birdies, that’s for sure.”

Fourth-seeded Karrie Webb beat Gloria Hee Jung Park 5 and 4 to advance to a third-round match against Hurst, a 4-and-2 winner over Helen Alfredsson.

In the lower bracket, the Wie-Pak winner Saturday morning will play the Brittany Lincicome-Kyeong Bae winner in the quarterfinals Saturday afternoon. In the second round, Lincicome beat Brandie Burton 2 and 1 and Bae edged Suzann Pettersen 1-up.

In the bottom half, third-seeded Lorena Ochoa will face Mi Hyun Kim and Sophie Gustafson will play Laura Diaz. Ochoa overcame a four-hole deficit to beat Karine Icher 1-up, Mi Hyun Kim routed Laura Davies 5 and 4, Gustafson beat sixth-seeded Cristie Kerr 4 and 2, and Diaz topped Lindsey Wright 2-up.

Because of heavy rain early in the week, the players were again allowed to lift, clean and place their balls in the fairways and fringe.