Rory McIlroy was staying focused on his own game after moving a step closer to The Race to Dubai title during the second round of the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
The Northern Irishman came into the final event of The European Tour season with a slender 1,613-point lead over Danny Willett in the battle to be Europe's Number One and that lead was the same after the first round as both men fired opening rounds of 68.
But while Willett battled his way to a 70 on Friday, McIlroy recorded a second consecutive round of four under to sit four shots off the lead and extend the provisional gap to his English rival to 228,333 points.
With so many points to play for in the final event of The Final Series, however, McIlroy is just concentrating on his own game, knowing victory will ensure he successfully defends his European crown.
"I'm treating it like a normal event because I'm just here to win and I know if I win, then everything else will take care of itself," he said. "I'm just trying to focus on my own game and focus on myself and if I can do that, hopefully things work out the right way.
"Considering where I am on the leaderboard, I'll take it now. It has played a little tricky out there with the wind conditions and the direction of the wind changing a little bit. It caught me out today a couple of times.
"Eight under par, it's a good position going into the weekend and not too far off the lead. I'm happy with my couple of days work.
"I felt like yesterday it could have been a lot better and today, I felt like I hit the ball a little better. It wasn't quite as scrappy. There was a little portion of the end of the front nine where it was scrappy still and I was missing a few greens.
"The back nine I felt like I played quite nicely and made a few birdies. I don't think I've taken advantage of the par fives quite the way I would have liked to but if I can do that over the next couple of days and keep giving myself plenty of chances, I should be close on Sunday."
Despite losing some ground on his main rival, Willett was reasonably pleased with his day's work and was confident that a good run on the greens could fire him up the leaderboard.
"There's no reason to hit the panic button," he said. "It's just good fun, isn't it?
"It's a good position to be in. It's better than pitching up here in 59th or 60th place and not playing great and playing early every day.
"We are in there with a shout and we keep putting some decent numbers up and we just have to wait for another run on the greens."
