No disappointment for Woods, who's still in the hunt

Here's how hard Oakmont played Friday: 12-time major champion Tiger Woods a shot 4-over 74 and wasn't upset. Woods, who's five off the lead, would like to be higher up the board, but doesn't mind his position heading into the weekend.

By T.J. Auclair, PGATOUR.com Interactive Producer

OAKMONT, Pa. -- Low scores certainly were not there for the taking at Oakmont during the second round of the 107th U.S. Open on Friday. After two-time winner Tiger Woods posted a 4-under-par 74 that left him at 5 over par total and five shots behind leader Angel Cabrera, he wasn't all that disappointed.

That's right, 12-time major champion Tiger Woods shot 4 over par and wasn't upset. If that doesn't emphasize just how difficult Oakmont is, what will?

"I don't know what the average score, was but I think I shot under par," said Woods, whose guess was spot-on, as the average second-round score was nearly seven shots over par at 76.933. "It was playing hard out there, it was really playing hard, the greens got really quick. It was just really hard to try and place the ball underneath the hole. A lot more difficult than it was yesterday. And then the wind was changing directions ever so slightly and you had to be aware of that."

Woods had two birdies -- on Nos. 6 and 12 -- and six bogeys on the day.

The one bogey that had Woods reeling was at No. 2, his 11th hole of the day, which could actually have been a lot worse. Playing as one of the shorter holes on the course at 341 yards, Woods got into trouble when his tee shot with an iron found the rough. From there, it took two shots to get out of the thick stuff before he got up and down for bogey from a greenside bunker.

"That was not a fun hole. I tugged my tee shot left and rough snagged it coming out and the hay snagged it again," he said. "I hit a pretty good bunker shot I thought, got below the hole and made the putt, one of the very few putts where I could be aggressive. I think I had probably three putts today that I could be aggressive with and I made two of them, the rest I had to kind of feed it down there."

While he's the first to admit he'd rather see his name higher up on the leaderboard, Woods doesn't mind the position he's in heading into the weekend. Unlike many, Woods hasn't recorded a single double bogey this week, which is saying something on Oakmont's brutal layout.

"It's a fun challenge. This is the U.S. Open, it's going to be tough and you've got to grind away," he said. "I've won this championship before and you have to be patient. That's the fun part of it, is it's so different than any other tournament we ever play in. Good shots are not going to be totally rewarded, but you're going to have good shots, bad shots are going to be penalized, and you know that and that's the way it should be, but you have to understand how to keep the ball in play, keep it below the hole if you can and have aggressive putts and I didn't do that today."

So how hard, exactly, is Oakmont playing?

"If you're a 10-handicapper, there is no way you're breaking 100 out there. If you played all out on every shot, there is no way," Woods laughed. "You just have to be so patient and on top of that you've got to be strong coming out of the rough and you've got to have unbelievable touch on the greens. Most 10-handicappers I know don't have that."