An exhilarating display from Miguel Martin and Santiago Luna banished the US team to second place, despite six birdies from Mark O'Meara.

Both Martin and Luna shot rounds of 66 - five-under-par - taking Spain's total to a 12-under-par 272.

O'Meara's 65, the joint-best round of the day and the week so far, pushed the US up to second place on 273. Woods double-bogeyed again, as he did in the first round, but six birdies in a 68 earned him top place in the individual section along with Martin and Wales' Phil Price on seven-under-par 135.

Sweden lie third, five off the lead, after rounds of 65 for Jarmo Sandelin and 66 for Patrik Sjoland, with Argentina and Wales a further stroke back.

"Spain won this event four times in eight years from 1976 but we haven't done a thing in it since," Martin said.

"It's time to put Spain back on the World Cup map and we can do it because we are both in great form. We know we were playing with the best player in the world and the man who won two majors last year but that does not intimidate us.

"They are like us with clubs and ball and anyway, they were perfect gentlemen to play with. That was very relaxing."

Birdie heaven

O'Meara was delighted with his seven birdies but is still looking for further improvement for the weekend to collect another World Cup title for America.

"I helped my partner a little bit today," O'Meara said. "And got my figures into the red, but there's still work for me to do if we are going to win this."

Leaderboard:

272 Spain - Santiago Luna 71 66, Miguel Angel Martin 69 66
273 U.S. - Tiger Woods 67 68, Mark O'Meara 73 65
277 Sweden - Jarmo Sandelin 74 65, Patrik Sjoland 72 66
278 Argentina - Eduardo Romero 72 68, Angel Cabrera 69 69, Wales - Phillip Price 68 67, David Park 71 72
279 England - Mark James 71 67, Peter Baker 71 70
280 Ireland - Padraig Harrington 71 68, Paul McGinley 70 71
284 New Zealand - Frank Nobilo 69 68, Stephen Scahill 77 70, Zimbabwe - Mark McNulty 73 73, Tony Johnstone 68 70, Japan - Mamoru Osanai 65 76, Mitsuo Harada 70 73
285 South Africa - David Frost 71 69, Richard Kaplan 74 71
287 Scotland - Colin Montgomerie 70 73, Dean Robertson 75 69
288 Mexico - Rafael Alarcon 72 69, Jose Gonzalez 72 75

Leading individual scores: