Command performance

TULSA, Okla. -- On the ascending temperature scale, there’s hot, there’s scalding, there’s melting, there’s thermonuclear and there’s Tiger Woods, when he’s, well, hot.

About the only thing Woods did wrong Friday at Southern Hills in the second round of the PGA Championship was when he spun out a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th green that would have given him the first 62 ever shot in a major.

Instead, Woods settled for a seven-under-par 63, his best score in 175 rounds in 49 majors, matched nine others for the lowest round in 89 years of the PGA Championship, and took a two-shot lead after the second round of the fourth and final major of the year.

Woods’ rounds of 71-63 added up to a score of seven-under 134. Closest to Woods is Scott Verplank, whose 66 looked strong until Woods took over. Stephen Ames and Jeff Ogilvy are tied for third, three shots behind Woods, although Ogilvy probably deserved better, but he finished with bogeys on the last two holes for a the second day in a row.

Woods knows all about disappointment coming at the end and dropped his putter when the ball stayed out of the hole at the 18th. Later, he said he wasn’t all that upset, just a little angry.

“I guess 62 1/2 is all right,” he said. “Evidently it didn’t want to go in.”

For most of the day, the ball had no problem diving into the hole for Woods, who made eight birdies and one spectacular par-saving putt at the 12th that traveled 35 feet and broke from right to left.

Woods’ only real slip was a bogey at the 384-yard par-four seventh when he drove a four-iron into the rough, his nine-iron second shot found a bunker and he couldn’t get it up and down from 12 feet.

Such a blemish isn’t saying that the show Woods put on was disappointing. Ernie Els, who had a 68, said Woods certainly got his attention.

“You can’t think or believe that it’s over,” said Els, who trails by six shots. “You know, I want to believe that it’s not.”

But here’s a chilling fact: Woods has never lost a major when he has either held or shared the 36-hole lead. He’s 7-0, his last victory coming at Hoylake in the 2006 British Open.

In PGA Tour events when he has had at least a piece of the 36-hole lead, Woods is 27-6.

“It certainly gives you confidence, there’s no doubt,” said Woods, whose best previous score in a major was a 64 at the 1997 British Open. “I know what to do. It’s just a matter of going out there and doing it. We’ve got a long way to go. We’re only at the halfway point.”

Ogilvy said Woods is human. Scary, but human.

“He does pretty well when he leads after two rounds and even better when he leads for three rounds,” Ogilvy said. “So I guess that is kind of ominous. But at some point, he’s not going to win. I don’t know, at some point he is not.”

Ames toured Southern Hills in a one-under 69 and he’s even with Ogilvy at three-under 137. But the PGA Championship is known for producing first-time major winners, the first three majors this year were won by first-timers and Ames is. . .

“Obviously, being a first-timer, yeah, I’m going to be in that category, aren’t I?”

Verplank has been showing up to play the PGA Championship for 14 years and his 66 was the lowest score he has had. It could turn out to be something of a geographical bookend year for Verplank, from Dallas, who won the Byron Nelson in suburban Dallas in Irving, and is now near the lead at the PGA Championship, not far from where he went to Oklahoma State in Stillwater, about an hour and a half away.

“My emotions are fine. I’ve decided I was going to really try to enjoy this week,” said Verplank, who has five top-10 finishes in his last six events. “Just the other night, you know, with friends and family and tickets, I was like an accountant trying to get all of these tickets done in the right envelopes. I think I put like 15 envelopes at Will Call and I’m like ‘OK, that’s enough, I’m done with that.’ ”

Of course, there’s still much more to be done the rest of the weekend, which promises to be 36 holes of every kind of pressure under the sun.

Verplank, who has diabetes and plays wearing an insulin pump, was steady but not spectacular at the start with eight pars before he hit a sand wedge to 10 feet at No. 9 and made it for a birdie.

He turned in three more birdies on the back and signed his card without a single bogey. At the 11th, he hit a seven-iron to six feet and made it; at the 15th, he hit an eight-iron to 12 feet and made it, and at the 17th, he hit a pitching wedge to eight feet and made it.

Or, as Verplank said: “Snuck that one in there.”

On the other hand, Woods sneaks up on no one. Everybody knows where he is, what he is doing, what he may do, how dangerous he is. Woods joined a notable list of 20 others who have shot a 63 in a major championship. Greg Norman and Vijay Singh are the only players who have done it twice.

Of the nine who have shot 63 in the PGA Championship, the only one to go on to win was Raymond Floyd in 1982 -- at Southern Hills.

Woods hit his driver only three times, but it didn’t matter when he was hitting his four-iron as much as 240 yards and his two-iron 300 yards. He hit two-iron off the tee and an eight-iron to six feet at the first hole and his first birdie was quickly in the bag. Then Woods moved to three under on the day with consecutive birdies at the fourth and fifth. He hit a three-iron off the tee at the fourth, then a nine-iron to 20 feet short of the hole and made the putt. His driver, six-iron and sand wedge left him eight feet from the hole at the par-five fifth and he made that one too.

At the 374-yard ninth, Woods hit a four-iron, then an eight-iron to one foot. He tapped in for a 32 on the front.

Woods hit a five-iron at the 10th and a nine-iron to four feet. His last three birdies came in succession -- a three-wood and a seven-iron to a bunker, then out to two feet and a birdie at the par-five 13th, where he caught Verplank at four under; a chip-in from the fringe at the 223-yard 14th, and a 20-foot putt at the 15th after a four-iron off the tee and seven-iron got him there.

He had three more chances for his 62, but it simply wasn’t available. Woods’ lip-out at the 18th reminded many of Nick Price’s similar putt for a 62 in the third round of the 1986 Masters.

But to believe that his 63 was some sort of statement to the rest of the field would be a mistake, Woods said.

“I was just trying to get myself back in this tournament. And lo and behold, here I am. And 62 would have meant I had a three-shot lead instead of a two-shot lead.”

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com