Tiger Woods was again frustrated by his lack of success on the Torrey Pines greens after a second-round 70 at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Woods' comments after his round echoed his thoughts of day one as he failed to match the low scoring of many in the field on the easier North Course, although he is safely in for the weekend on four under in his first start of the year.
The seven-time champion did make an encouraging start with a birdie at the par-five 10th, but he could not better par over the next six holes before finally getting a putt to drop at the long 17th.
A horrible plugged-lie in a greenside bunker at the 18th contributed to a double-bogey six which left him needing a solid front nine to make the cut, and he got back on track with back-to-back birdies at the third and fourth including a sublime chip-in from the fringe.
But he spurned a series of further chances down the stretch, with disappointing pars at the two remaining par-fives, and he admitted he needed something "special" over the weekend to make inroads into the 11-shot deficit to halfway leader, Justin Rose.
"That could have been a lot, lot lower but I just didn't make anything," said a despondent Woods afterwards. "I hit a lot of good putts that just didn't go in. If some of those drop, then I could have easily been five or six under par.
"After the back-to-back birdies at three and four, I had two par-fives left and a driveable par-four. I figured I could claw my way back into it if I could birdie those holes, but I didn't do that.
"I'm pretty far back now, and I'm going to have to play a special weekend to have a chance. The South Course is tough, and the way the guys like Rosey are playing right now, they are taking it to the course.
"That's not easy to do on the South, but they're doing it right now so hopefully I can do the same on the weekend."