VIRGINIA WATER: Danny Willett veered from the sublime to the ridiculous, following a record 29 on the front nine with an inward half of 39 as he shared the second-round lead at the BMW PGA Championship on Friday.
The US Masters winner surged to the top of the leaderboard alongside South Korean Yang Yong-eun (69) and Scott Hend (69) of Australia after a scintillating burst of scoring on another sunny day at Wentworth that yielded six birdies in seven holes to the ninth.
The journey home was a completely different story, though, as Willett frittered away stroke after stroke before a birdie at the long 18th gave him a four-under-par 68 and a 10-under tally of 134 at the European Tour's flagship event.
"I chucked a couple of horrid golf shots in there and it was nice to make a birdie at the last," Willett told reporters after finding it tough to cope with swirling winds on the outskirts of London.
"I could have chucked it away and finished really poorly but ... it shows a little bit of mental strength.
It was tough to double check yardages." Willett, whose front-nine 29 represented a tournament record, also had a lucky escape on the 17th when, bending over in the rough by the trees, his sunglasses almost fell on his ball.
The 28-year-old Englishman responded with a relieved giggle when he asked John Paramor if the glasses had touched the ball and the tournament official said "no".
Willett would have incurred a one-shot penalty if the ball had moved.
After his round the world number nine gave an insight into how life had changed since he captured his first major victory at Augusta National in April.
"Everything you do is being watched," said Willett who, for the second day running, could be heard mumbling under his breath when things went wrong on the course.
QUIET SESSIONS
"You've got to mind your Ps and Qs which obviously I'm not the best at," he added.
"It's the fact I used to be able to have nice, quiet practice sessions on my own and just do my own thing. Now you feel like you're being watched all the time," Willett said.
"That's fine, and what you should expect, but it's just getting used to having someone around constantly." Willett said his time management, as a result, was getting better and better.
"I make sure I've got enough time to sign enough stuff, do all that and still leave time to practice," he explained.
"I feel like I'm getting the balance just right. Hopefully, we can now press on over the weekend."
The three leaders have a one-stroke advantage over South African Jaco van Zyl (68). Spain's Jorge Campillo is four off the pace in fifth position after a 67. The shot of the day came from Scotland's Scott Jamieson who won a car worth more than 40,000 pounds ($58,428) for his hole-in-one at the 184-yard, par-three 10th.
It was the first ace of his tour career and the 32nd in the history of the tournament that was launched in 1955.
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