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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

ATLANTA -- Someone inquired as to what Mark Calcavecchia was thinking when he saw that 28 Tiger Woods threw out on the front nine during the second round of THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.

Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams liked the way things worked out Friday at East Lake. (Streeter Lecka/WireImage)

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

TIGER WOODS THRU 36 HOLES

Category Total Rank Eagles 1 T1 Birdies 15 1 Pars 16 30 Bogeys 4 T12 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A Driving Accuracy 46.4% T23 Driving Distance 294.3 yds. 8 Greens in Regulation 83.3% T4 Putts per Round 27.0 T2 Putts per GIR 1.500 1 Sand Saves 66.7% T13

• Tiger Woods' Player Page

"Trying to figure out which holes he parred, actually," Calcavecchia said. Told that Woods had parred the first three at East Lake, the veteran feigned shock.

"First three? He got off to a bad start," Calcavecchia said. "He could be in a slump. I noticed he made a bogey. I think he's losing it. ... I was kind of hoping he'd shoot 59 just for interest's sake."

Actually, Woods couldn't keep up the torrid pace on the back -- but he did manage to make birdie on the final hole for a 63 that left him at 13 under and three strokes ahead of Woody Austin. Calcavecchia, Tim Clark and Adam Scott are tied at 9 under

"That's pretty impressive," Scott, the defending champion, admitted. "Luckily for all of us, he kind of slowed down a little bit and kept a tournament of it."

Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and K.J. Choi now need a Tiger-esque weekend if they are to overtake him and win the inaugural FedExCup. Choi is five strokes behind, Mickelson seven and Stricker nine in the final event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

"Winning always takes care of everything," said Woods, who is seeking his seventh of the season and second straight. "The whole idea of this week is to go out there and get it done. At the halfway point, I'm in good shape for that."

Scott said he wasn't intimidated by Woods' performance, he was inspired to keep up.

"When he's out there running, we don't fear it, we've just got to get after him, but sometimes he's just better than us," the young Aussie said.

And Friday was one of those days. The 28 was his lowest ever on the PGA TOUR and included a stretch of five straight birdies capped off by an eagle putt of 70 feet. Woods' 13-under total was a record for the opening 36 holes at East Lake.

"What can you do?" said Woods' playing partner, Steve Stricker. "I mean, he's making it from everywhere, he holes out a bunker shot. I have it inside of him a couple times, and I walk off with par and he makes a birdie. I'm grinding like heck just to make those putts.

"I just kept trying to play the way I play. I was playing my own game. We had a lot of fun, not much else I can do, just keep trying hard. But it was unbelievable after a while, what he was doing."

While others searched for superlatives, though, Woods took things in stride.

"I didn't know I shot 28 on the front nine until we got to the scoring tent, until we added it up," he said. "You just play shot for shot. You place the golf ball and you don't worry about anything else."

Woods got things going when he rolled in a birdie putt from 10 feet on the fourth hole. He holed a prayer of a bunker shot on the next, then rolled in birdie putts of 14, 11 and 7 feet before the dramatic eagle completed the run.

Woods called the eagle putt "pure luck. If you could have been right behind the golf ball and seen how that ball was bouncing all over the place, it was actually quite funny." And he didn't see the bunker shot at the fifth hole find the cup, either.

"I had a terrible lie," he said. "There was a bunch of sand there. I was just trying to get the ball within 10 or 15 feet, give myself a putt at it. By the crowd's reaction, I thought it came screaming in there and hit the flag and ricocheted off and I had a one-foot putt or something. I got up there and it was gone -- nice surprise."

Woods said he didn't know whether he was in a zone, but he felt there was a nice rhythm to the day. He'd like nothing better than to continue that pace with the stressed and slow East Lake greens uncharacteristically yielding low scores.

Woods is only four strokes shy of Bart Bryant's 72-hole record -- with two rounds remaining to be played.

"Certain tournaments, you've just got to make a bunch of birdies, and this is one of them," Woods said. "I mean, (Padraig) Harrington is a shot back going into the second round, shoots even par and gets run over by most of the field.

"That's the nature of this tournament this week, which is so different than most TOUR Championships. You've got to be aggressive. You've got to make birdies, and if you don't, you're going to get passed."

Especially when Woods has it in high gear.