Sergio Garcia set himself up for a third success in Texas when he stormed four shots clear of the field midway through round two of the Shell Houston Open.
Garcia did not drop a shot as he tamed the windy conditions in a round of 65 to move to 12 under par on the Houston Golf Club course in suburban Humble.
The 34-year-old broke through on the PGA Tour by capturing the first of eight titles at the 2001 Colonial Championship in Fort Worth and then three years later succeeding at the Byron Nelson Classic in Irving.
Garcia capped his round by sandwiching a fourth-hole eagle either side of two birdies, and then also birdied three holes in succession from the 12th.
"I was thinking I would be able to shoot three, four-under," he said. "So to be able to shoot seven under in those conditions was really, really nice."
However, Garcia continues to tread water in a pool of players still carrying the tag 'One of the best golfers never to win a major.' He has not looked like making the breakthrough since losing the 2008 PGA Championship to Ireland's Padraig Harrington, but in this form he does now look a genuine threat to become the third Spanish-born champion at Augusta National.
He said: "It's difficult to say how good my golf is compared to the past, but I would say it's the best it's been since 2008 PGA. I felt really, really good there at Oakland Hills and I was close to winning."
The 25-times winner also is back in a good place in his off-course life thanks to German-born girlfriend, Katharina Boehm, who caddied for Garcia when he ended a year-long drought in capturing last December's Thailand Championship in Bangkok.
He added: "There is no doubt I am in a comfortable place. Everybody knows pretty much what has gone on in my life, and it's never fun to go through some of those emotions. But you get to learn from those downs and to really enjoy the highs. So I am definitely happier outside the golf course, which makes me happy on the golf course."
Double major winning Rory McIlroy said his game is around 85% heading to the Masters, despite shooting a 71 to move to three under par. Lee Westwood is assured of making the Houston Open cut in signing for a 72 to fall back to level par, but fellow Ryder Cup star Nicolas Colsaerts kissed goodbye to his hopes of heading to Augusta after withdrawing following his first-round 76.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article