MELBOURNE, Australia --- Seve Benson has never seen so many people on a golf course. Some 10,000 fans lined both sides of the 10th fairway Thursday morning as the sun was still climbing over Melbourne.
Never mind that they didn't come to watch him.
Tiger Woods, who teed off behind the 23-year-old Englishman, made the Australian Masters feel like the one at Augusta National Golf Club. Tournament officials said 21,356 people came through the turnstiles, an enormous crowd for the size of the golf course. Most of them scooped up tickets months ago after learning the world's No. 1 golfer would compete Down Under for the first time in 11 years.
Woods delivered a performance that matched the hype, even if it fell slightly short of his own standards.
American Jason Dufner topped the leaderboard halfway through the second round, shooting 5-under-par 67 for a one-stroke advantage over the late-starting Woods and five others.
Dufner bogeyed his final hole to finish at 7-under 137 at Kingston Heath. The former Auburn star is winless in three seasons on the PGA Tour.
Woods had a late tee time after opening with 66 on Thursday.
Manny Villegas (68) and Ashley Hall (69) and Mathew Goggin (70) completed the second round at 6 under, while James Nitties and Brenden Grace had yet to tee off.
Not everyone could watch every shot, so thousands lined the fairways two holes in advance to wait on Woods. Once he played through, most of them waited for a few more groups -- Geoff Ogilvy was two groups behind -- to plot their next move.
That gave players on either side of Woods a chance to share the buzz.
"It was amazing," said Benson, a European Tour rookie who opened with 70 and needs a big week to keep his card. "After a couple of holes, you get used to it. But then you realize that they were not on the hole before. They had been waiting awhile."
Fans lined up at the gate and stretched 200 yards down the road at dawn, and it took some 45 minutes for cars to move a quarter of a mile down Kingston Road. Told that he was responsible for a traffic jam, Woods laughed.
"I was stuck in it, too," he said.
Australians haven't seen Woods since the 1998 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, and they couldn't get enough of him Thursday. One man sitting near the third green, frustrated that security officers and marshals were blocking his view, turned to a reporter to ask him if he had been following Woods.
Such a question is usually intended to find out how Woods was playing. Not this one.
"Then you shouldn't be here," the man said. It was his way of saying, "It's my turn to watch Tiger."
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