AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods was cruising. Tied for the lead in the second round of the Masters and the only player in the field who had not bogeyed a hole, he stood in perfect position in the 15th fairway.
Poised to make his fourth birdie of the day, he could take the outright lead, bringing him a step closer to restoring the legitimacy of his march toward the record for major championships.
Woods responded with a nearly textbook wedge shot, one so precise it struck the flagstick on the fly about two feet from the ground. The ball ricocheted sharply backward, bouncing and spinning into the pond alongside the green.
As a ball that is roughly one and a half inches in diameter struck a flagstick that is about three-quarters of an inch wide, Friday's second round of the Masters turned. Woods went from likely birdie and likely leader to a scrambling bogey and an eventual tie for seventh place.
Instead of Woods's stalking to a commanding lead at the halfway point, the tournament was thrown wide open, boosting the chances of a slew of contenders crowding the top of the leader board.
"One of those crazy bounces," said Woods, who shot a one-under-par 71. "I was staring at birdie; I thought it was a good shot and right where I wanted it. The shame of it is that should have been a round in the 60s. My score today doesn't indicate how well I played."
Taking the lead just after Woods's unlucky bounce and holding it to the conclusion of play was Jason Day, a 25-year-old Australian and a talent on the rise until a disastrous, injury-filled season a year ago. Day shot a four-under 68 to finish the second round at six under par. No Australian has won the Masters. Four times an Australian has been second, with Day the last to do it, in 2011.
"Obviously there's a lot of pressure on my shoulders, being from Australia," Day said. "We have been very, very close, but I've just got to try to get that out of my mind and just plug away."
He added: "You can't think your way to a victory. You have to play. But every shot is big for me now. People are watching me all over the world."
Day's late charge nearly eliminated 14-year-old Guan Tianlang, who barely survived the cut after a controversial one-stroke penalty for slow play. Had Day gotten to seven under par — he missed birdie attempts on the 17th and 18th holes — Guan, who finished at four over after two rounds, would have been on the wrong side of the cut line, which excluded any golfer more than 10 strokes behind the leader.
Trailing Day by one stroke was 53-year-old Fred Couples, the Masters champion 21 years ago. Couples, who shot a 71, has contended in the last three Masters.
Couples said he was going to retire if he won this weekend.
"I'm going to quit when I win this thing, I swear to God," he said, laughing. "It's probably not ever going to happen, but I'm going to retire."
Tied with Couples after a sloppy 73 was another Australian, Marc Leishman, the first-round co-leader.
Three golfers were two strokes behind Day, and it was a formidable group. Each has something to prove this weekend.
Brandt Snedeker nearly won the 2008 Masters but wavered down the stretch, ended up tied for third and left the course in tears. Jim Furyk, a former United States Open champion, contended for his second major victory at last year's Open but faltered in the final round. He also had a poor finish in the 2012 Ryder Cup competition and is seeking some measure of redemption. And Ángel Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion, is currently 269th in the world golf rankings. Cabrera, who also has won the United States Open, could use a major victory to reignite his career.
Woods, who began the day four strokes off the lead, birdied the fifth, seventh and eighth holes to vault into contention as Leishman and his first round co-leader, Sergio García, slumped. García was two over through four holes and never recovered, shooting a slapdash 76 that dropped him into a tie for 14th.
Woods played steady through Amen Corner, the only player to that point without a significant mistake. He laid up on the par-5 15th and had 87 yards to the hole.
"The wind had been brutal and swirling all day," he said. "But that shot was well controlled. You see it hit the flag flush, and there's nothing you can do but watch it roll back into the water."
Things did not get better for Woods from there. He missed the green at the par-3 16th but rescued a par. He did the same after his tee shot on the 17th hole found the rough. At the closing hole, his approach shot was about a foot too long, jumping up onto the upper tier of the green when the hole was cut in the front.
That led to a three-putt, and Woods went tumbling down the leader board into a seven-way tie at three under par.
"There's a long way to go," Woods said. "We've got 36 holes, and with this wind, it's a tricky test."
Among the notable players missing the cut was Martin Laird, last week's winner at the Texas Valero Open, and the former United States Open champions Webb Simpson and Graeme McDowell. The defending champion, Bubba Watson, just made the cut at four over par.
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