With an unheralded Japanese player, wearing a scrunched-up cowboy hat for purely aesthetic reasons, having the audacity to clamour his way to the top of the leaderboard, and world number one Tiger Woods forced to walk a tightrope in his efforts to survive the cut, there was ample reason to believe that the scorching sun was having a rather strange effect on happenings in the second round at Atlanta Athletic Club yesterday.

By day's end, though, a touch of normality had been brought to the proceedings. Shingo Katayama, the man with the strange taste in headwear, still led - but he had been joined on the nine-under-par 131 mark by American Ryder Cup hopeful David Toms. And Woods, whose only missed cut as a professional came in the 1997 Canadian Open, finally rediscovered his birdie touch in time to ensure his presence for the weekend.

A long time before Woods required the drama of slamming in two birdie putts over his closing four holes to survive, Phil Mickelson had retreated inside into air-conditioned rooms in the knowledge that, yet again, he had put himself in to a challenge position in a major. A second successive round of 66 left him just one stroke adrift of the two leaders.

Mickelson's candour can sometimes be constructed as a touch of arrogance, but nobody can doubt his desire to win a major. Yesterday, there was a perceptible spring in his step as he assessed his position. "My mindset is not to win the golf tournament, but to pull myself away form the field. That's my goal," he insisted.

As David Duval had observed in the build-up to this final major of the season a fortuitous break is often required along the way. Mickelson, though, remarked: "I'm a big believer that luck occurs when preparation and opportunity met ...(in the past) I haven't created those good breaks myself." And, still, it was almost as if he were still looking over his shoulder at Woods-one of his perpetual tormentors in majors-when he added: "Anybody who makes the cut realistically has a shot."

Indeed, there was ample evidence yesterday that the course still has plenty of birdies to offer up to players who find the fairways. Mark O'Meara, who had acted as something of a counsellor the previous evening to Woods when the pair had dinner and they discussed what was required to make the cut, certainly proved the point with a course record 63.

In improving on his first round score by nine shots, O'Meara matched the lowest 18-hole round in a US PGA championship and became the 20th such score recorded in a major. "I haven't played that well in the last year and a half, but I'm not greedy. I just want to hit a few good shots and, if I give myself the opportunity over the weekend, then hopefully I can remember the past things that have helped me in majors," said O'Meara, winner of the 1998 US Masters and British Open.

For Woods, chasing a third successive US PGA title, the onus of his Friday afternoon work in the heat became focused on making the cut. After a first round 73, he assessed he requires a 67 to survive but lived dangerously until a 40-footer form off the green on the 15th and a 35-footer on the 16th brought him to the safety mark.

In the end, he shot a 67 for level-par 140 which turned out to be one inside the cut mark when Mike Weir suffered a late bogey to bring in 76 players on 141 - but Woods turned his playing partner David Duval, who had a 68 for 134, on the 18th fairway and remarked: "This is a lot harder than trying to win tournaments." Woods, in fact, claimed that "Lady Luck hopped on my side," in his efforts to stay in the tournament, a reference to his putt on the 15th which was struck too hard. "I was kinda embarrassed, I thought it was going in the water," he said. Instead, it struck the sup and popped in.

A number of other players were not so fortunate in their endeavours to make it into the weekend, however. Among the casualties were a large number of Europeans-including Darren Clarke, who finished one shot outside the mark, and Padrai Harrington - while Sergio Garcia's hopes of making the European Ryder Cup team as an automatic choice finished when he had nightmare 75 for 143, and Bernard Langer also endured a miserable back nine on his way to a 73 for 142.

Niclas Fasth, runner-up to Duval in the British Open at Lytham, maintained his good form to take up the mantle of leading European at the midway stage-four shots behind the joint-leaders-while Duval, unhappy with his putting on greens he described as "very poor" had a 68 which put him in a six-way tie in joint-fifth on 134, well within striking distance heading into what promises to be interesting, and potentially low-scoring, weekend.