Luke Donald may be called "Plod" by his brother, but The Ryder Cup star's precision rather than power game could bring him the biggest title of his career at the new-look Wentworth Club on Sunday.
A second successive 68 enabled Donald to take over at the top from fellow Englishman Danny Willett in The European Tour's showpiece BMW PGA Championship.
By steering clear of trouble on the much harder West Course the 32 year old has so far had only one bogey in 36 holes - and his five on the 12th would have been a par a year ago.
"I think the reason why it suits me is because you kind of have to plot your way around a little bit more now," he said.
Without a win in Europe for six years, this is the first of a three-week break from the US PGA Tour to try to boost his prospects of regaining his Ryder Cup spot after wrist surgery kept him out last time.
With tournament debutant Willett adding a one over 72 to his opening 65, Donald leads by one from not only the 22 year old from Sheffield, but also last year's runner-up Ross Fisher (70) and South African James Kingston (69).
Willett's day began with three birdies, before his round tailed off slightly on the back nine.
"I got off to a really quick start," he said. "I managed to put a bit of space between me and the lads behind, but a there were a few pitfalls, and the wind swirled around.
"I went long on a few greens and struggled to get up and down from where the flags were. I hit it all right, but just didn't quite hole the putts I did yesterday."
Fisher narrowly missed out on the title at the Club where he graduated through a scholarship scheme and is determined to try and go one better this time.
"There are a lot of guys in contention," he said. "I'm right up there, one behind at the moment, so whatever happens at the end of today's play, I'm pretty pleased with the first two days, and hopefully I can have two more good days.
"I felt like I played really, really nicely today. I gave myself a lot of good opportunities and just really struggled with the speed of the greens. Yesterday I felt like I putted really nicely - I think I had 25 putts yesterday. Today, it's probably more like 32, 33, I just couldn't buy a putt."
Paul Casey, who has Donald's brother Christian as his caddie, still has high hopes of a successful defence on four under, while Padraig Harrington, Swede Fredrik Andersson Hed and Bristol's Chris Wood are on the same mark following rounds of 67, 70 and 68 respectively.
"I think it's no surprise we have got somebody like Luke Donald somebody up on the leaderboard leading this thing now," said Casey. "He's probably one of the masters at plodding his way around a golf course, and you need to have that now.
"We've played lots of practice rounds together and we've played quite a few practise rounds together this year. I very much respect Luke's game."
