World No.1 Tiger Woods shot a blistering career best-tying nine-under-par 61 in the second round of the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational to take control and lead by seven at Firestone Country Club.
The 14-time major winner flirted with a rare 59 after opening the back nine with four straight birdies but parred the final five holes to settle for 61, equalling his own career and course record mark.
Woods is odds-on to claim a record eighth title at the event despite still having 36 holes to play.
He has already claimed four victories this season and also has 17 WGC wins in 41 starts in the lucrative events but last won at Firestone in 2009.
With 78 career wins so far, he is also closing in on Sam Snead’s all time US PGA tour win record of 82.
“I didn’t drop any shots today, and I kept the card clean,” Woods said.
“Those are nice feelings when you’re able to do that, when you’re able to keep a card clean like that with no bogeys.”
Defending champion Keegan Bradley (68) and Englishman Chris Wood (68) share second at six-under, seven off the pace, while Bill Haas (68) and Henrik Stenson (70) are tied fourth at five-under.
Adam Scott is the best of the Australians after he followed up his opening-round 73 with a more precise 68 to be one-over par, a monumental 14 shots off the pace.
Woods started his second round two shots in arrears but had wiped out the deficit and stolen the lead within two holes.
A precision approach to three feet on the first resulted in a birdie before he reached the par-5 second in two and drained a 20-footer for eagle.
Not content, he rolled in a 13-foot birdie putt on the third to put an early gap on the field.
A gorgeous tee shot on the par-3 seventh to just three feet helped him to another birdie and a 30 on the opening nine.
Showing no signs of slowing down as he made the turn, the 37-year-old drained a seven-foot birdie on the 10th, backed it up with a five-foot downhill slider on the 11th and had the crowd in an absolute frenzy when his 20-footer on the 12th hit the middle of the hole.
When Woods missed a six-footer on the second last hole, the 59 dream was over.
Jason Day (72) is tied 59th in the 73-man field at six-over while Brett Rumford (74) is 71st at 10-over.
Australian PGA Championship winner Daniel Popovic continued to struggle, shooting 77 to be 16-over in last place.
