MARC WARREN'S growing stature in the game was no more evident than when he rebounded from an early double bogey to birdie three of his closing four holes on day two of the British Masters at Woburn.
Warren’s level-par 71 score to remain at six under par leaves Scotland’s top-ranked player sharing 10th place and just three off the lead.
The duo of Dane Soren Kjeldsen (68) and England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick (69) share the lead at 10-under par on The Marquess' Course.
Warren was reeling very early on after taking an ‘unplayable’ penalty at the second hole for double bogey while he then bogeyed the sixth ahead of the current World No.56 regrouping to play his last four in three under par.
A few years back and Warren would have been heading in the opposite direction to miss the cut.
He said: “After what happened at the second, I was just trying to limit the damage a little bit, and it just felt I was fighting for par on every hole.
“But then my putting today inside 10-feet was really solid as I holed some really good par putts to keep me going and I managed to play my way back into it.
“Then over the last few holes my game was a whole lot better including two really good irons shots – the first a 7-iron to about six feet at 17 and then an 8-iron to two feet there at the last.
“I am a lot more tired after today’s round compared to yesterday’s 65 but then I would say a round like that today a few years ago would have definitely have got away from me.”
Warren has contested 23 events this season including two regular PGA Tour events and made the cut in all but five.
And after being ranked as high as World No.161 ahead of the 2014 Scottish Open, Warren is now just six places shy of playing all four Majors for a first time in his career.
He said: “Today’s effort was not only an example of how well I feel can turn around a poor start but also an example of how well I am thinking.
“My swing wasn’t feeling good and I wasn’t hitting good shots but I kept hanging in there, and just keeping the swing thought in my head and we saw that with some really good swings to finish.
“So today is an example of how I feel I have matured in contrast to years gone by when it was a few over par and I would not have been able to find my game like I managed to do today.
“And in the past it would have taken me three or four days to sort it out, whereas now I can change my thinking on the course and then get back to playing aggressive.”
Edinburgh's David Drysdale (69) is at one under par while Stirling’s Craig Lee (70) made it right on the level-par cut-off mark.
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