George Coetzee felt he made the best of the conditions as he fired himself into contention with a 65 on day two of the US PGA Championship.
The South African, who has two European Tour wins so far this season at the Tshwane Open and AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, opened with a 74 but went nine shots better second time round to sit two shots behind leader clubhouse David Lingmerth who was seven under.
Coetzee held the low score of the day before Hiroshi Iwata carded a Major Championship record equalling 63 and was happy to get himself to the right end of the leaderboard.
"Yesterday it was quite difficult," he said. "I didn't play that badly, but the wind was blowing quite strong and I was hitting two iron into 18, and so it definitely wasn't easy yesterday.
"But today there were much more birdies to be had out there. The guys are definitely not hanging back like they did yesterday. Yesterday I think half the day they had my name on the scoreboard at one under for the afternoon field and I was like, well, you guess that's pretty good."
The 29-year-old opened with two birdies and recorded two in a row again at the fifth and sixth before blotting his copy book with a bogey on the ninth.
That did not halt his momentum, however, and he picked up two further shots on the 10th and 11th before putting his second shot on the par five 16th to five feet and claiming an eagle.
A seventh birdie of the day followed on the 17th but after he found the sand and had to chip out on the last, he finished with a bogey.
"It's funny how the game works," he added. "I've had the same kind of swing thoughts, same game plan.
"Today the putts just went in. I didn't make, I feel like I figured something out with the putting stroke and the putting feels much better than it did the last couple of weeks and that I guess makes a big difference in ball striking and every aspect of your game.
"If you know you're going to make the putts, then you can play a bit more conservative when you have to and you don't take the silly chances."
Marcel Siem sat one shot behind Coetzee at four under after a second consecutive round of 70.
The German had five birdies and three bogeys for the second day in a row but felt he had to work much harder for his score on Friday and will now try and relax before the weekend.
"I played a lot better yesterday," he said. "Today was a bit of a grind. The conditions were a lot easier today.
"My driver didn't work that well so I grinded nicely, holed a few putts (and am) very happy with the score."
He added: "I hit a lot of pulls today, so I have to grind that out.
"I think it was my takeaway, I was a little lazy in my back swing, so I kept my hands a little closer to the body. That's what I've got to grind out on the range now.
"Do some putting and then try and catch some fish. I haven't caught a fish all week, so that would be fantastic."
