A battling Tiger Woods clawed his way out of early trouble to stay in the Masters hunt, carding a second round two-over 74 on Friday as the wind gave him more problems than the right leg that he nearly lost in a career-threatening car crash.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was among the few to tame the challenging conditions, posting a 67 to seize control of the leaderboard and charging five clear of the field on eight-under 136.

With winds blowing across Augusta National, golfers were in full survival mode and none more so than Woods who took bogeys on four of his five opening holes, threatening to derail the comeback that has captivated golf fans around the world.

But the 46-year-old’s famous fight surfaced in time to put him one-over heading into Saturday’s third round and nine back of front-running Scheffler.

“I got back in the ball game,” said Woods. “I’m four shots back at second. That’s the thing. But Scottie is running away with it right now. Let’s see how things unfold in the next two days. It’s going to be the Masters that I think the Masters committee has been looking forward to for a number of years.

“We haven’t had it like this. It’s going to be exciting and fun for all of us.”

With three wins in his last five PGA Tour starts, Scheffler showed why he is the hottest golfer on the planet taking a bogey on his first hole then going on to post the day’s best round.

The 25-year-old American, even with a commanding five-shot lead, cannot afford to get complacent being chased by a trio of major winners, including South Africa’s Charl

Schwartzel (69), the 2011 winner at Augusta National,

Irishman Shane Lowry (68), the 2019 British Open winner, and defending Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama of Japan (69).

Also five back is South Korea’s Im Sung-jae (74), the first round overnight leader.

“There’s still 50 guys in the field, something like that, I’m sure, and I can’t worry about what those guys are doing,” said Scheffler. “I’m just going to go out and play my game and just keep doing what I’m doing. Still quite a long way to go.

“It’s nice to build up a little bit of a lead, but I’m not really going to be thinking about it tonight or anything.

“If you’re within five or six on that back nine going into Sunday, you’ve got a chance. So I just need to get there.”

As spectacular a round as Scheffler had, it still was not enough to pry the spotlight away from Woods.