WOODS AND MCILROY JUST MAKE WELLS FARGO CUT

Peter Malnati and Tiger Woods both had reason to celebrate on the ninth green at Quail Hollow at the end of their rounds.

Malnati was coming off two straight birdies to take the lead Friday in the Wells Fargo Championship at Charlotte, N.C., when he put his 5-iron in a deep bunker to the right, with the green running away from him. He was trying to blast out to 15 feet, but he got the club too much under the ball and feared for the worst until it cleared the lip by inches.

Malnati emphatically wiped his hand across his brow, made the 6-foot par putt for a 3-under 68 and had a one-shot lead over Jason Day and Aaron Wise.

“Pretty scary when I hit it,” he said. “I got away with it, looked like a genius.”

Hours earlier, Woods stood over an 18-foot putt on No. 9, his final hole of another ordinary round that up until then featured no birdies. He finally made one, and stretched out both hands in mock celebration when it dropped.

“I’m on a hot streak right now. I made the last putt,” he said.

Never mind that it was the only putt he made longer than 5 feet. Or that he was nine shots out of the lead in a tie for 48th, his worst position through 36 holes in his last five tournaments. At least he was still playing on the weekend at Quail Hollow, where he had missed the cut his previous two trips. That putt made certain of it, though Woods made it the cut with one shot to spare.

Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson also had to sweat it out.

McIlroy, the only two-time winner at the Wells Fargo Championship, celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday by matching his worst score at Quail Hollow with a 76, including three bogeys over the last five holes.

He was in the same spot as Woods, nine shots out of the lead.

Mickelson wasn’t that wild — three bogeys, two birdies, another 72, and he made the cut with one shot to spare.

Wise, the former NCAA champion from Oregon, shot 32 on the back nine with three birdies over the last five holes. He made the turn and was looking to stay in the lead until a sloppy bogey on the par-5 seventh, the second-easiest at Quail Hollow.

The more daunting names on the leaderboard were right behind the final group of Malnati and Wise — Day (67) also was one shot behind, with Paul Casey (68) and former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel (67) another shot back.

Champions: Bernhard Langer felt like his game was rounding into form after a slow start to the year by his lofty standards, and it all came together on a calm, humid day at The Woodlands (Texas) Country Club.

The 60-year-old Langer shot a course-record, 9-under 63 on Friday to take a threestroke lead at the Insperity Invitational. The 63 was Langer’s best round on the PGA Tour Champions since a 10-under 62 at the Chubb Classic in 2016, which he went on to win.

Jeff Maggert, who lives only minutes from the course, was tied for second with Scott Dunlap after each shot 6-under 66.