Rory McIlroy was feeling good about his game after he fired an unblemished 66 to put himself right in the mix heading into the weekend at the 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic.
The Northern Irishman has four Major Championships and three Harry Vardon Trophies in his collection but has yet to win a Rolex Series event, although he has had a few near-misses.
He has finished second at the BMW PGA Championship, third at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and in the top ten twice at the DP World Tour Championship in the Rolex Series era since 2017, and will head into the third round just four shots off the lead at Emirates Golf Club.
The World Number Eight knows all about the ups and downs of golf, having experienced many since claiming his first DP World Tour win 13 years ago at this very event, and he is hopeful he is on yet another upswing.
"With how I ended last year, I certainly found something," he said. "Got a bit of momentum.
"Won on the PGA Tour, had a really good chance to win here in Dubai at the end of last season. It feels good.
"There's so many ebbs and flows in this game and the career is so long that it's sort of hard to compare one year to the next and how you're feeling and how you're hitting it.
"But I think looking back on my last 12, 14 years or whatever it's been, the body of work is there and I've played well and I haven't felt so good and I played poorly when I felt really good.
"It's just a matter of keep showing up each and every day and try to put the lowest score possible on the scorecard and move on."
On day two in Dubai, McIlroy put his approach to six feet on the first and while he missed an opportunity after driving the green at the par-four second, he holed a long putt for birdie from the fringe at the fourth.
The 32-year-old then dined out on the par fives on the back nine, getting up and down on the tenth, chipping in for eagle on the 13th and holing an 18-footer for birdie on the last.
"Could have been way lower," he said. "I certainly hit the ball well enough for it to be lower.
"I certainly hit the ball as good as I've done in a long time and it could have been a few better but 66 this afternoon is a good score and sets me up for a nice weekend."
McIlroy's Ryder Cup team-mate Viktor Hovland was alongside him at seven under after a 69, and the Norwegian admitted he did not feel at his best.
"Felt like I played a lot better yesterday, was more solid tee to green," he said.
"Today I kind of sprayed a lot of tee-shots and hit some bad iron shots but I played really well on my front nine, the back nine. So I kind of had a little cushion going into the front nine here.
"Managed to make a couple of birdies but just a few too many mistakes today to be able to shoot a real good score."
