Woods & Mickelson make moves in Shanghai

World number one Tiger Woods claimed a share of a one-stroke halfway lead at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, on a day when Shane Lowry slipped back towards the pack.

Woods carded a second consecutive five-under-par 67 in Shanghai while first-round leader Nick Watney battled to a two-under 70 to join him at 10-under-par overall, with Spaniard Alvaro Quiros joining world number two Phil Mickelson and Ryan Moore at the head of the chasing pack, just one shot off the pace.

Former champion Mickelson posted a bogey-free six-under-par second round, while Qatar Masters champion Quiros dropped just one shot in his 66 with Moore carding a hard-fought 69.

At the top of a tightly congested, American-dominated leaderboard, Volvo World Match Play Championship finalist Anthony Kim (69) claimed sixth at eight under with Pat Perez (69) a further shot back and Brian Gay (69) at six under with India's Jyoti Randhawa (70).

Lowry still leads the Irish challenge after following his opening round 66 with a 74, suffering a bogey-bogey start on holes 10 and 11, and then carding another two on 13 and 17. To his credit, the Offaly man stemmed the tide by immediately carding a birdie at 18. Another bogey at the fourth stopped his momentum but Lowry produced a big finish in the shape of back to back birdies on 8 and 9 to finish with a 74 that leaves him four strokes under par and tied for 12th position.

Rory McIlroy and Pádraig Harrington, the only other Irishmen in the field, began to climb the leaderboard.

McIlroy is a further shot behind Lowry, his former amateur team-mate. The Ulsterman started with a bogey - having doubled the first yesterday - but a two on the par-three fourth steadied the ship and a string of four birdies in the closing six holes got him to three under and a tie for 25th.

Harrington had a steady round that included just one bogey, on the 17th, and four birdies to be three under par and in a tie for 20th.

But Woods was the story of the day.

The American was just one under through the turn but made his move on the back nine as a brilliant chip-in birdie on the 16th and a fourth gain in eight holes at the last earned the two-time HSBC Champions runner-up a share of the lead.

'I got off to a good start and birdied the very first hole, but after that, I didn't really make any putts,' said Woods.

'I certainly had some looks at them and didn't really capitalise on anything and made a putt at nine and from then on I hit a lot of good putts and played the last 10 holes in five under.

'It was a little bit frustrating not holing the putts, but the guys weren't really running off and hiding and I knew that if I could play the back nine in three under that would be a pretty good number and I was able to do a couple better than that.'

Big-hitting Quiros has struggled for form since his thrilling win in Qatar at the start of the year with only a second place at The European Open to show for his efforts, but his second eagle of the week early in his second round set the Spaniard on the way to posting five birdies against just a solitary bogey.

'I'm hitting the ball okay, nothing great, but nothing bad either,' he said.

'I've been very lucky because the shots I missed were very playable and I made a good recovery.'

Mickelson, the 2007 champion, also waited until the back nine to kick-start his round as a second chip in of the day at 15, from thick rough, headlined a run of three birdies over his final four holes.

He said: 'It was a good round. I played well to shoot six under. I had a couple of chip-ins which was nice and kept the ball in play throughout the day and then made a couple of birdies at the end.

'I'm pleased with where I have put myself after two rounds, I have put myself in a good position heading into the weekend. There's a lot of guys there and I'll need to play very well on the weekend, but I'm in a good position.'