Sergio Garcia overcame early nerves and retained his two-stroke lead in the Open at Carnoustie on Friday - with more than a little help from an off-form Tiger Woods.

But now comes the hard part for the 27-year-old Spaniard. Twelve times he has finished in the top 10 in majors, but not once has he achieved victory.

A chance to follow in the footsteps of his compatriots Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal has arrived again on the same course where eight years ago he had the worst two rounds of his professional career.

From the nightmare of his 30 over par total then - rounds of 89 and 83 left him dead last - the world number 13 added a level par 71 to his sparkling opening 65.

That is a shot-a-hole improvement over the two days.

And with Woods' bid for a third successive Claret Jug hitting trouble from the moment he hooked an iron out of bounds off the first tee - he eventually came off with a 74 to fall seven behind - Garcia's six under par halfway total of 136 was always likely to keep him at the top of the leaderboard in the windy conditions.

South Korean KJ Choi, one place ahead of Garcia on the world rankings after two recent wins on the US Tour, looked for a while as if he might at least draw level with him after birdies at the 14th and 15th brought him one behind.

But he was almost in the Barry Burn with his closing drive and with a bogey five had to settle for a second successive 69.

Choi is still second on his own, one ahead of Garcia's fellow countryman Miguel Angel Jimenez and Canadian Mike Weir, while Americans Jim Furyk and Boo Weekley - the one who did not know until last week who Jean Van de Velde was or that Paul Lawrie won in 1999 - are joint fifth.

Sadly for the Irish fans, Paul McGinley, second after his first day 67, managed only a 75 and dropped to 13th, while 18-year-old amateur Rory McIlroy failed to rediscover the magic of an initial 68 that had put him joint third.

Even with a 76 for two over, though, the Northern Ireland youngster is certain of the silver medal that goes to the leading amateur - and he did far better than a number of big names.

With double bogey sixes at the last world number two Phil Mickelson and McIlroy's compatriot Darren Clarke both missed the cut on six over.

World number one Woods, joint eighth overnight on two under, double-bogeyed the first and after a birdie on the next dropped further shots on the fifth and eighth.

It could have been far worse for Woods. He was close to the out-of-bounds fence on the long sixth, scrambled a par at the ninth off a really poor approach into sand and then, for the second day running, had incredible good fortune on the 466-yard 10th.

In his opening 69 it came with a free drop away from a bad lie in the rough because of television cables that strangely could not be moved - even the Royal and Ancient Club's Director of Rules could not answer why - and on his return he might easily have hit his approach into the Barry Burn.

Instead his ball came down in the trees, narrowly missing two people blissfully unaware that they could have been hit, and with a clear path to the flag he salvaged another par.

Woods then birdied the long 14th, but finished with a bogey and said: "It was basically a lack of commitment on the first tee. It was such a poor shot - the commitment wasn't there and I didn't back off.

"I hit a lot of poor shots, but I hung in there. The course is playing difficult and with the bad weather forecast tomorrow you've just got to grind it out and try to stay away from big numbers."

He has won all his 12 majors with at least a share of the lead with a round to go, but it will take something extraordinary for him to be in the position he loves so much by Saturday night.

Garcia, who played in the final group with Woods at Hoylake last year and shot 73 to the American's 67, did not start too convincingly either.

He admitted to having the dreaded "shank" with a nine-iron to the first.

"I am not going to lie. I was a little bit nervous at the beginning," he said. "But in 2003 at Sun City I shanked with the same club and managed to win the tournament. It's not a bad thing."

In 1999 he began the Open with a triple bogey seven from the same area that he was in after two shots, but this time one recovery shot rather than three did the job and it was a simply brilliant one, the ball flopping over the bunker and running down to within two feet of the flag.

Asked if he would be putting it in his private collection of miracles, Garcia smiled and said: "No - it was just a good, solid shot."

He did bogey the 412-yard fourth, but up-and-down from a bunker at the 578-yard sixth repaired that and after dropping another shot on the 11th he came back again with another birdie on Carnoustie's other par five, the 514-yard 14th.

Inevitably, his so far unsuccessful quest for a major came up in his interviews afterwards.

So did he get bored or frustrated or even insulted by the question: "When will you win the first major?"

"Never - first time I heard it," he joked. "I'm always going to say the same thing. I'm trying. I'm trying to win as many majors as I can. That's all I can do.

"Last year I managed to shoot 23 under in the last two majors and didn't win. What can you do?" He was fifth and third, both times behind Woods.

The cut fell at four over par just after 9.15pm when Korean-born Australian Lee Won Joon avoided a double bogey on the last hole of the final group.

His bogey five meant 70 players qualified for the final 36 holes - and also meant that Colin Montgomerie missed the cut for a fifth major in a row. Every one, that is, since he double-bogeyed the final hole to lose last year's US Open by one.

Also on five over and out went 1999 winner Paul Lawrie and American Justin Leonard, one of the players he beat in a play-off then.

Another on the same mark was current European Order of Merit leader Henrik Stenson on a day when he was fined for damaging a tee marker on the eighth hole after hitting out of bounds.

Collated second-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):

136 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 65 71

138 KJ Choi (Kor) 69 69

139 Mike Weir (Can) 71 68, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 69 70

140 Jim Furyk (USA) 70 70, Boo Weekley (USA) 68 72

141 J J Henry (USA) 70 71, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 71, Andres Romero (Arg) 71 70, Alastair Forsyth 70 71, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 68 73, Lee Westwood 71 70

142 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 70 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 70, Stewart Cink (USA) 69 73, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 72, Paul McGinley 67 75, Padraig Harrington 69 73, Paul Broadhurst 71 71

143 Steve Stricker (USA) 71 72, Nick Watney (USA) 72 71, Tiger Woods (USA) 69 74, Pat Perez (USA) 73 70, Adam Scott (Aus) 73 70, Lucas Glover (USA) 71 72, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 72 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 69, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 71, Rich Beem (USA) 70 73, Markus Brier (Aut) 68 75

144 Jerry Kelly (USA) 74 70, Charley Hoffman (USA) 75 69, Arron Oberholser (USA) 73 71, Chris DiMarco (USA) 74 70, Ross Bain 73 71, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 72 72, Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 74, Rory McIlroy 68 76, Mark Calcavecchia (USA) 74 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 75 69, Ryan Moore (USA) 72 72

145 Anders Hansen (Den) 72 73, Nick Dougherty 71 74, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 73, Paul Casey 72 73, Justin Rose 75 70, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 74, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 75, Richard Green (Aus) 72 73, Scott Verplank (USA) 72 73, Jonathan Byrd (USA) 73 72, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 70 75

146 Ben Curtis (USA) 72 74, Won Joon Lee (Aus) 73 73, Sean O'Hair (USA) 71 75, Mark O'Meara (USA) 74 72, Shaun Micheel (USA) 70 76, Sandy Lyle 73 73, Brian Davis 74 72, Zach Johnson (USA) 73 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 68 78, David Howell 72 74, John Senden (Aus) 72 74, Tom Lehman (USA) 73 73, Jon Bevan 73 73, Hunter Mahan (USA) 73 73, Kevin Stadler (USA) 75 71, Ian Poulter 73 73, Luke Donald 70 76, Mark Foster 76 70

The following players failed to make the cut:

147 Tomohiro Kondo (Jpn) 74 73, Colin Montgomerie 73 74, Tom Pernice (USA) 74 73, Matthew Zions (Aus) 72 75, Johan Edfors (Swe) 72 75, Joe Durant (USA) 77 70, Justin Leonard (USA) 74 73, Paul Lawrie 73 74, Peter Fowler (Aus) 74 73, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 76

148 Benn Barham 75 73, David Toms (USA) 71 77, Toshimitsu Izawa (Jpn) 75 73, Darren Clarke 72 76, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 74 74, Phil Mickelson (USA) 71 77, John Rollins (USA) 72 76, Brett Quigley (USA) 72 76, Drew Weaver (USA) 76 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 76

149 Steve Alker (Nzl) 74 75, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 74 75, Ross Fisher 74 75, Peter Baker 73 76, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 75 74, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 71 78, Achi Sato (Jpn) 71 78, David Frost (Rsa) 74 75, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 72 77, Charles Howell III (USA) 73 76, Chad Campbell (USA) 74 75, Loren Roberts (USA) 74 75, Brett Wetterich (USA) 75 74, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 74 75

150 Spencer Levin (USA) 76 74, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 77 73, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 76 74, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 74 76, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 76 74, Graeme McDowell 77 73, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 75 75, Davis Love III (USA) 79 71, Michael Putnam (USA) 78 72, Matt Kuchar (USA) 74 76, John Daly (USA) 74 76, David Higgins 79 71, Bradley Dredge 76 74, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 75 75, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 76 74

151 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 78 73, Richie Ramsay 76 75, John Bickerton 75 76, Stephen Ames (Can) 81 70

152 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 74 78, Nick Faldo 79 73, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 74 78, Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 79, Oliver Wilson 80 72, Kevin Harper 77 75

153 Anthony Wall 77 76, Toshinori Muto (Jpn) 74 79, Dong-Hwan Lee (Jpn) 75 78, David Shacklady 76 77, Todd Hamilton (USA) 81 72, Seung Hoo Lee (Kor) 77 76, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 76 77, David Coupland 79 74

154 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 75 79, Scott Laycock (Aus) 74 80, Steve Parry 73 81, Paul Waring 74 80, Mark Hensby (Aus) 79 75, Anders Hultman (Swe) 77 77

155 Duffy Waldorf (USA) 82 73

156 Desvonde Botes (Rsa) 78 78, Vaughn Taylor (USA) 82 74

157 Justin Kehoe 78 79, Doug McGuigan 77 80

158 Llewellyn Matthews 75 83, Ben Bunny (Aus) 81 77, Graeme Storm 78 80

160 David Gleeson (Aus) 83 77, Scott Drummond 79 81, Adam Groom (Aus) 79 81

161 Tony Jacklin 78 83

162 Ewan Porter (Aus) 83 79