Graeme McDowell holds a one shot lead at the half-way stage in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba.
The Northern Irish man is on 12 under, one clear of America’s Derek Fathauer with Si Woo Kim and Harold Carner III a further shot back.
McDowell left his putting woes behind him to shoot a scintillating eight-under 63 on Friday to lead the field at El Camaleon Golf Club in Mexico.
McDowell has just one top ten finish in 25 worldwide starts this year and the former Major winner has fallen to 85th in the world rankings.
His putter has been hot this week though and he took just 51 putts through two rounds.
“I’m seeing the greens well, keeping this real simple,” McDowell said.
He has played El Camaleon’s first hole in 3 over par – he made double-bogey Thursday after hitting his opening tee shot out-of-bounds – but has made 16 birdies and just one bogey on the other 34 holes.
He made eight birdies in a ten-hole stretch on Friday.
“I went through a spell in my career where winning started to become a little easier,” McDowell said.
“I’ve had a spell here the last 18 months where making cuts has been hard and getting in contention has been difficult."
He added: “I feel like I’ve got enough resources to pull on going into a weekend like this one. The keys are not getting too far ahead of myself and staying in the present. This is not the last-chance saloon this weekend.”
Scotland’s Russell Knox is tied for 14th with five other players on seven under.
He is enjoying the best spell of his career having been the surprise winner of last weekend’s HSBC Champions in China, where he was a late entry following several withdrawals.
Justin Leonard and Shawn Stefani dropped down to a share of fifth with rounds of 68, while Aaron Baddeley had a nightmare day, with three bogeys and a double-bogey on the par-four sixth sending him all the way down to a share of 37th as he signed for a 73.
Varner’s 62 was the best round of the day and came despite a bogey on the second hole.
