PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — That was, honestly, the highest score he could have possibly shot today. Ruminations on Tiger Woods’ immensely frustrating 1-over 72 Friday:

· He’s going to look back on his second nine and regret it. After a bogey-free, 1-under start on the back, Tiger strode to the first tee at Pebble Beach in position to take advantage of the conditions and the course’s gettable holes.

He did not. He missed good looks for birdie at Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 6. He hit an indifferent wedge at No. 7. And when he ran out of holes he was supposed birdie, his missed opportunities caught up with him.

·  The chickens came home to roost on Nos. 8 and 9, two-thirds of the Cliffs of Doom. His iron approach at No. 8 barely cleared the hazard (don’t care, writing hazard) and left him truly scrambling for the first time in hours. He stuck his club in the rough, sailed his ball 15 feet by, and left himself the least desirable putt on the golf course. That was never going in. A pulled driver into a fairway bunker at No. 9 led to him laying up in the rough. To his credit, he worked a wizardly wedge to just 7 feet, but he couldn’t stay level. It was a bogey-bogey close, after 14 consecutive pars.

·  He was, understandably, miffed. “Are you steaming?” he was asked. “Yeah, I am,” he answered. “Not a very good finish. … I'm a little hot right now. I just signed my card about a minute ago. So need a little time to cool down a little bit.”

·  There was no fault in the strategy. And there wasn’t much fault with the ball striking – not until the end. The putts just didn’t drop. He missed five birdie tries from inside 15 feet. He missed three from inside 10. He surrendered 2.02 shots on the greens in Round 2 as of midday. “Yeah, I had a couple opportunities there. I missed a couple,” he said. “But overall, I kept leaving myself above the hole. And unlike yesterday, when I missed it, I missed the correct spots below the hole; today, I never had that many looks from below the hole. And the one I did have, I made at 11.”

·  There was a plausible version of this round that would have seen him make a run at Justin Rose’s lead. There was a perfectly acceptable version of this round that would have seen him make a few, miss a few, and work his way to maybe 3 or 4 under through 36 holes. Just about the least likely outcome would have seen him make 14 straight pars, fumble late and shoot 1 over. But that’s exactly what happened. Now he’s even par for the championship, seven off the lead held by Rose at the end of the morning wave. “Yeah, right now I'm still in the ball game,” he said. “There's so many guys with a chance to win. We've got a long way to go, and, you know, we'll see how it shapes up for tomorrow.”

·  It’s not often you’re going to look at 14 straight pars in a U.S. Open and feel disappointment. That was the story Friday. He is capable of putting together back-to-back rounds in the red this weekend, but it's only going to get harder to score. Pebble Beach was there for the taking.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The adventures of Jordan Spieth continued Friday at Pebble Beach. A day after he was caught on camera blaming caddie Michael Greller for two bad yardages, Spieth once again became exasperated after his fairway-bunker shot struck a rake that was buried in tall grass on his 11th hole of the day, No. 2. 

“Oh, it hit the rake,” Spieth said, taking off his hat. “Oh, there’s a rake there.”

The ball could have gone anywhere after ricocheting off the rake, but instead it hopped a few feet in front of him, into gnarly rough from which he was only able to advance the ball 40 yards. From there Spieth was actually able to salvage bogey, after holing an 8-footer, part of a whirlwind day in which he carded seven birdies and five bogeys, leaving him six shots off the lead at the U.S. Open.

“Today was kind of a what-could-have-been round,” he said.

Through two rounds Spieth (nine) has made more birdies than clubhouse leader Justin Rose (eight), but he’s also made a number of miscues, from indecision with shot selection to poor execution.

The rake incident was a result of both – it was perhaps a stretch to hit a 200-yard 6-iron from a sidehill, downhill lie over a barranca, and either player or caddie should have spotted the rake directly in line with the target.

Spieth took responsibility for the mental lapse – “That’s on me. I’ve got to look at all options ahead of me” – but his incredulous reaction was another bad look after he was slammed on social media for throwing his caddie under the bus.

“It was kind of a weird set of events,” he said.

And it’s been a weird week for Spieth, who hit only eight greens during a Friday 69. Two years ago he was the best iron player on the planet, but he’s struggled mightily with his approach shots this season, ranking 161^st in greens in regulation. That has continued with his iron shots into Pebble’s small, severe greens.

“To be under par at the U.S. Open with eight bogeys in two days means things are in a good place,” he said. “Just got to limit those mistakes. ... It’s easier for me to limit the mistakes than it is to try and force birdies.”

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Justin Rose’s short game has caught the eye of even world-renowned scrambler Jordan Spieth.

After watching Rose save par from all over Pebble Beach over the first two rounds here, Spieth offered high praise for his playing partner: “That’s the best I’ve seen somebody get up and down around the golf course for two rounds, maybe ever.”

Rose’s performance through two rounds of this U.S. Open wasn't historic, but it was impressive. Through two rounds he’s ranked first in strokes gained: around the green (4.19) and second in putting (6.34). Rose is leading at 7-under 135 despite hitting just over half of his greens (19 of 36).

“He’s chipping and putting beautifully,” Spieth said, “and not hitting it probably as well as he’d like to, and he’s still leading the U.S. Open. So that’s scary for Justin Rose.”

Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champion, said that the key to his hot start was converting putts in the 5- to 8-foot range.

“They are makable. You feel like you should make them. But they’re kind of 50-50 putts,” said Rose of Pebble's small, sloping, fast greens. “So when you make them you are keeping up the momentum, and then when you miss one you really feel like you’ve lost something. Even though they’re 50-50 putts, the psychological gain from making them is a whole shot.”  

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Stepping to a makeshift stage a short walk from the ninth green, Tiger Woods did not mince words following his second round at the U.S. Open.

“I’m a little hot right now,” Woods said. “I just signed my card about a minute ago. So need a little time to cool down a little bit.”

Following a day with plenty of promise and scant results, Woods had reason to feel the steam building under his collar. While his opener at Pebble Beach was somewhat a product of smoke and mirrors, draining putts and saving pars to keep the round on track by the thinnest of margins, this was a stroll along the coast where birdie chances were in high supply. The consistency that eluded Woods with his irons and wedges the day before made a decided turnaround, helping him find 13 greens in regulation – four more than Thursday’s 1-under 70.

But the 11-footer he rolled in for birdie on No. 11, his second hole of the day, proved to be a rare bright spot and the lone birdie in an otherwise frustrating round. The rest of the round was a slow bleed, as Woods time and again was unable to capitalize on the type of controlled ball-striking many in the field would envy and eventually signed for a score that was two strokes higher than the day before.

Pars are usually welcome sights in a U.S. Open, and Woods made 14 of them in a row. Going back to the opening round, he had a run of 29 holes without a bogey – a longer stretch than even he had en route to that 15-shot romp in 2000. But with Pebble’s teeth scaled back amid calm winds and soft conditions, Woods was stuck in neutral while Justin Rose showed him that pars aren’t the only thing on the menu this week.

“Overall, I kept leaving myself above the hole,” Woods said. “And unlike yesterday, when I missed it and I missed it in the correct spots below the hole, today I never had that many looks from below the hole. And the one I did have, I made at 11.”

Woods’ self-assessment speaks to the small margins that make Pebble a demanding championship venue. Already boasting the smallest greens in tournament golf, summer conditions can make them play even smaller and make an uphill 30-footer more desirable than an 8-footer back down the slope.

But when he looks back on where things went awry, Woods will surely focus on his second nine Friday. After each of the first two rounds he has hammered the importance of capitalizing on Nos. 1-7, then “hanging on” over the subsequent 11 holes. He did just that Friday morning, starting on the 10^th and making the turn at 2 under for the week. The stage was set for him to bury a few putts and move firmly into the mix, perhaps reaching the 4 under plateau currently enjoyed by Matt Kuchar and defending champ Brooks Koepka, among others.

Instead he missed three birdie putts from inside 15 feet before the course bit back, per his forecast, on Nos. 8 and 9 where bogeys dropped him out of red figures for just the second time all week.

Staring at a seven-shot deficit against an accomplished former champ, and with more than two dozen other contenders between him and the top spot, Woods said all the right things and failed to give up on his chances for a fourth U.S. Open title and 16th major championship.

“Right now, I’m still in the ball game,” he said. “There’s so many guys with a chance to win. We’ve got a long way to go and, you know, we’ll see how it shapes up for tomorrow.”

But barring another flash of that 2000 form, Woods’ realistic chances to win may have come and gone. While this event usually separates wheat from chaff with squares of all sorts on the scorecard, Woods’ primary issue hasn’t been an inability to limit the errors.

Instead, it’s been about creating ample chances and having little to show for the effort. Woods spoke often about the “grind it out” aspect of this tournament, one of its annual hallmarks. But this week, with verdant grass around every corner and coastal conditions relatively calm, idling by has left him chasing a decorated lead pack. And it won’t get any easier to find the gas pedal over the weekend.