updated 11:53 p.m. ET Aug. 12, 2005

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. - Phil Mickelson oozed confidence, firing at flags and grinning with every step he took Friday, establishing himself as the man to beat in this PGA Championship.

Tiger Woods was all smiles, too, but only because he didn’t have to pack up and go home.

Mickelson stuck to his plan.

Woods scrambled for survival.

Golf’s two matinee idols switched roles on a steamy day at Baltusrol, where Mickelson quickly separated himself from the pack with a 5-under 65 to match his largest lead in a major championship.

He was mostly steady, sometimes spectacular and surprisingly patient. He attacked from the bunker and from the rough, rolled in an eagle putt for a 31 on the back nine, and recovered from his few mistakes by rolling in birdie putts from 40 feet and 25 feet that put him further ahead.

“There’s a lot of golf left, but I’m entering the final two rounds with a lot more confidence than I’ve had in a while,” said Mickelson, who was at 8-under 132 and led by three over Jerry Kelly.

Woods is entering the final two rounds. That’s about all he can say, and even that wasn’t assured until a pressure-packed drive found the middle of the fairway to set up a two-putt birdie on the par-5 18th.

Woods was three shots over the cut line with eight holes to play until three birdies in five holes seemingly left him safe. But when he tried to grab a slice of history, he almost made the wrong kind.

Woods went for the green on the 650-yard 17th hole — reached only two other times, and even then when it was shorter — only to see his 3-wood carom off the side of the green, across the bunker and against the lip. Woods snapped his towel to his side when he saw the lie. He had no choice but to turn his back to the flag and scoot a chip through the sand and into the grass, but he couldn’t save par.

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His only hope of not being cut for the first time in 36 majors in his professional career was to birdie the par-5 18th, and he delivered a 358-yard drive that left him a 7-iron to the green. A two-putt birdie gave him a 69 to make the cut on the number at 4-over 144.

“I got through somehow,” he said. “I either messed up, or things didn’t quite go my way. I did as best I could.”

But it wasn’t long before reality set in.

Woods was 12 shots behind Mickelson, whose name atop the leaderboard suddenly looks as daunting as ever. It was his largest lead in a major since he was three shots ahead of Justin Leonard after two rounds in the ’96 PGA Championship.

Even the guys with a realistic chance have their work cut out for them.

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Kelly holed a bunker shot on his final hole, the par-3 ninth, for a 65 that put him at 135 and in the final pairing Saturday with Mickelson. Davis Love III (68), Lee Westwood (68) and Rory Sabbatini (69) were another shot behind, while defending champion Vijay Singh shot 67 and was five back.

Kelly hasn’t been in contention at any tournament since the Bob Hope Classic in late January, but the former college hockey player isn’t one to shrivel amid a pro-Mickelson gallery often found in the New York area.

“That’s exactly what I love. Just to be in that theater is going to be fun,” he said.

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Hardly anyone is having more fun than Mickelson — except the fans watching him. The first big cheer of the second round came early Friday when his name was announced on the 10th tee. It reached near hysteria when Mickelson blasted out of a fairway bunker to 3 feet on the 13th hole and hit out of the rough on the 14th to 12 feet for another birdie that sent him on his way.

When he made an 18-foot eagle on the 18th, his lead already was at four shots and climbing.

Mickelson is relying almost exclusively on a controlled cut off the tee, something he did last year when he won the Masters and came within five shots of a chance to capture all the majors. But he hasn’t come close this year, raising questions why he didn’t play this way earlier in the major championship season.

“That’s probably a question I should answer later, after the week is over,” Mickelson said. “Right now, I just want to hit that cut shot, which I think is most effective here.”

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