Tiger Woods Fails to Make Wells Fargo Cut CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Wandering drives and errant putts undermined Tiger Woods on Friday at the Wells Fargo Championship, as he missed the cut for the eighth time in 267 P.G.A. events and for the second time in a row at this tournament. Woods had never missed the cut at the same event more than once as a pro until Friday when he failed to take advantage of a course that allowed low scores in the morning session, when he played. Nick Watney shot an eight-under-par 64, two strokes off the course record, to take a one-stroke lead over Webb Simpson going into Saturday's third round. After two rounds, Watney has a 12-under-par 132. More attention was paid to the cut line than the top of the leader board with Woods on the edge all day during an erratic round of one-over 73. Woods, who finished the tournament at an even-par 144, said he fought his swing, which he has been working on for more than a year. "If I get over the golf ball and I feel uncomfortable, I hit it great," said Woods, the seventh-ranked player in the world. It's just that I get out there and I want to get comfortable, and I follow my old stuff, and I hit it awful. We've changed a bunch of different things, and every now and again I fall into the same stuff, old stuff. That doesn't work with a combo platter of old and new. His worst shot came at No. 5, a par-5, 570-yard hole where his approach sailed wide left into a grove of trees and disappeared. Woods and several fans spent more than five minutes searching the thick pine straw for the ball. A marshal found one, but it was not Woods's. Witnesses said they saw the ball hit the ground and disappear among a group of people, although no one saw anyone remove the ball. P.G.A. officials granted Woods a drop without penalty, ruling that a fan must have taken it. Had the P.G.A. ruled it was a lost ball, Woods would have been assessed a one-stroke penalty and returned to where he made his last shot. Instead, he shot from the woods and saved par on the hole. "A very strange situation," said Mark Russell, P.G.A."s vice president of rules and competition. Nobody had any evidence that they saw the ball picked up, but there was no other place the ball could be if it bounced and went in there. Based on the evidence we had, I didn't see anything else we could do. I think I would have been more wrong telling him he had to go back. Playing in the group behind Woods, Rory McIlroy saw several instances in which Woods struggled. "It's tough to scramble your way around this golf course all the time," said McIlroy, who was six strokes out of the lead after shooting a 68. It's going to take its toll on you. These things take time, working on your swing. There are going to be weeks of where you see glimpses of it like at Bay Hill where he obviously played great, and there are going to be weeks where you're a little off. It just so happens that these days his little bit off isn't quite as good as it used to be. When he needed it most, Woods's putter failed. He two-putted from within 15 feet seven times, including twice from within 4 feet. Woods had 33 putts during his round and said the greens looked fast but were not. "I just don't hit it hard enough because what my sight sees and what my feel is telling me are not what it is, and they're not marrying up," Woods said. Consequently all my putts were left short. Vijay Singh, who won this event in 2005, also missed the cut by shooting five-over par in the final four holes, including a triple-bogey on his final hole, to finish his round at 77 and the tournament at one-over 145. Anthony Kim, the 2008 winner, withdrew from his third consecutive event. He cited pain in his right wrist and elbow, along with his left thumb. Watney and Ben Crane were low for the day with 64s. Watney had seven birdies, an eagle and a bogey. Crane's round also featured seven birdies, an eagle and a bogey. Crane moved him into a tie for third at 10 under with Stewart Cink, D. A. Points and John Senden. Lucas Glover failed to make the cut, the third consecutive year the event's defending champion did not reach the weekend.