Whitney leads Wells Fargo by one shot

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Nick Watney answered what he referred to as a wake-up call at the Wells Fargo Championship by taking the lead.

Tiger Woods might need one after missing the cut.

Watney had gone nine straight rounds on the PGA Tour without breaking 70 and had failed to crack the top 10 in all nine of his stroke-play tournaments this year. He worked hard to change that, and it paid off Friday with an 8-under 64 that gave him a one-shot lead over Webb Simpson going into the weekend.

A two-time winner last year, Watney had failed to crack the top 30 in a full-field event this year, and missed the cut in New Orleans for his first weekend off at a tournament since July.

“I think last week was a wake-up call for me,” Watney said. “And I’ve worked really hard these five days leading into this event. I think it just shows I’m making progress. Who knows what’s going to happen this weekend, but I’m really excited for it. More hard work, and hopefully I’ll be in this position a lot more.”

Woods wound up in rare position.

He failed to make a birdie on any of the par 5s or any hole on his back nine, missing a 4-foot birdie putt on his 17th hole with the cut on the line. Woods wound up with a 73 — his eighth consecutive round in the 70s — for an even-par 144 to miss the cut by one shot.

It was only the eighth time in 267 events on the PGA Tour that Woods missed the cut, and the first time it happened at the same place twice — Quail Hollow, where in four trips before the downfall in his personal life Woods had won once and never finished worse than 11th.

“This is one of my favorite tour stops, and unfortunately, I’m just not going to be around for the last two days,” Woods said.

Phil Mickelson narrowly avoided joining him.

Mickelson was right on the cut line and facing a scary finish on the par-3 17th over water and the par-4 18th, with a stream running down the left side and trees and trouble on the right. He played both holes perfectly for pars, though his 72 left him 11 shots out of the lead.

Lefty couldn’t believe how much the course had changed from Thursday morning.

“I haven’t seen as big a change since like Shinnecock ’95 where it was a whole different course,” Mickelson said, referring to the U.S. Open. “So I played well today. I didn’t get the ball in the hole as well as I would have liked, but I hit a lot of putts that just didn’t go in and I hit a lot of good shots that just didn’t quite go my way today.”