Danny Willett declared himself more than satisfied with his first two days' work at Trump National Doral as he headed into the weekend at the World Golf Championships - Cadillac Championship just three shots behind leader Adam Scott.
Englishman Willett fired a 69 on Friday to continue his impressive start to the 2016 season, a start which yielded a victory at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic last month.
He had taken the lead thanks to a birdie-birdie start but bogeys on the sixth and ninth sandwiched a further gain on the eighth. A birdie on the 12th came courtesy of a 13-foot putt and he then got up-and-down from a bunker on the 16th to tie the lead again before Scott made three gains in his last four holes.
A win this week would make it four on The European Tour in 15 months for the man who finished second on last season's Race to Dubai, and Willett is delighted with the way both his week, and his game, are progressing.
"I didn't hit it as good today as yesterday," he said. "Left ourselves a few smelly ones out there but in general scored really nicely.
"The golf course is slightly easier than it was last year, the greens are a bit softer and wind's not quite picked up as much as it did last year yet. I think we are still to see that and yet to see it really bear it's teeth out there but seven under over two days is more than good enough.
"Everything's progressing nicely. That was the aim to keep everything going slightly better day after day, keep working hard, ticking boxes. It doesn't always lead to good results, but fortunately it has in the past 12, 18 months.
That's all I'm trying to do every day, keep doing as much as I can to get better and hopefully throw in a few good numbers on the way - Danny Willett
As a former World Number One and Masters Tournament champion, Scott has seen it all before and comes into this week off the back of a victory on the US PGA Tour.
The Australian fired a 66 on Friday to get to ten under and open up a two-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, and he knows that he faces a tough test to make it two in a row over the weekend.
"Momentum is a huge factor," he said. "The trick is figuring out how to use it and maintain it, to keep it going from week-to-week. So far this week, I've done a good job.
"Now the weekend is a different animal and the leaderboard looks great. It's going to be exciting and the course is, at the moment, producing good scores.
"It's just the start you want in a World Golf Championships. But look at the leaderboard, I'm sure it's going to be an amazing weekend out here. I hope I can keep my game at this high level for two more days and be in the hunt."
