Defending champion Rory McIlroy plans to keep calm and carry on after an "amazing day" at Augusta earned him a record-breaking 36-hole Masters lead.
Six birdies in his last seven holes saw the Northern Irishman post a 65 and a 12-under-par total, his six-stroke halfway advantage the best in the tournament's history.
McIlroy has memories, albeit distant now, of losing a four-shot lead on the final day of the 2011 Masters but he bounced back two months later by maintaining an eight-shot 56-hole advantage to win the US Open.
Now, he's laser focused on finishing the job to claim a second Masters title in a row.
"Amazing day," he told RTÉ Sport's Greg Allen. "To back up a 67 (on Thursday), the tied low round of the day, with the low round of the day today. I just got on a run on the back nine and you can do it on this golf course, right? You can get momentum, the crowd gets on your side, you start to feel it.
"The only thing I can do this weekend is focus on myself, go out there and shoot two good rounds, and hopefully that's good enough. If someone comes from the pack and shoots two 65s to overtake me, then fair play to them. So I think a big key for me this weekend is to focus on my own game, not keep looking at the leaderboards. There's no point in doing that. I know I have a lead. I don't need to keep checking it all the time and just go out there and keep playing the way I'm playing."
If McIlroy wanted to send out a message to his rivals - the closest being 2018 champion Patrick Reed and Sam Burns - it was the way he turned up the heat on the back nine in a dominant display.
He scorched ahead of a stacked leaderboard which had four other major winners trailing in his wake.
After reeling off three successive birdies from the second to get to eight under he responded to two bogeys mid-round with five birdies in six holes from the 12th.
His brilliant approach, trickling down the slope to three feet at the 16th, put a third two on his card and he could seemingly do no wrong as, having punched out from under the trees, he chipped in at the next.
As if to underline his dominance he struck his approach to the last to six feet for a ninth birdie of the day.
"You know... over the past five or six years, I've tried to not retool my game, but I've tried to work on the things that maybe weren't as strong," added McIlroy.
"I felt like I could get better, especially when golf courses get firm and they get like this and they provide this sort of test. It's not just hitting drives as far as possible.
"You have to have a little bit of finesse. You have to have a little bit of touch. I've definitely shown that over the first two days and I'm going to have to continue to show that over the next two days as well.
"I've got my man Harry (Diamond, his caddie) beside me and we're having fun out there. We definitely had fun those last few holes. I'm speaking for him now, but we're both very excited for the opportunity going into the weekend."
Shane Lowry (above) is also enjoying himself. The Offaly man is tied for fourth - seven shots off McIlroy - after a blemish-free round of 69 on Friday, with late birdies on the 16th and 18th.
"I'm happy," he said. "If you'd offered me this on the first tee (Thursday) morning I would have taken your hand off, but also to do it in the manner I've done it in, like I feel very comfortable out there. I felt like I was just kind of hitting the ball in the right spots and doing my thing and you know just going about my business my own way and yeah it was nice. I'm very happy with those couple of days' work.
"You take nothing for granted because golf is golf and you never know what's there in the corner so I just need to you know I go home, rest up, do my thing tonight and you know chill out tomorrow morning and get out there in the afternoon.
"It's not going to be easy, you know it's exciting isn't it? I'm here going out on the weekend of the Masters in contention, it's nice, it's a nice place to be and you know I think about this week a lot, I build myself up for this week a lot and a lot of time and effort goes into this week so to come out and perform at just the first two days is really really nice.
"Who knows how many chances you get to win a green jacket? Hopefully I can give myself a chance this weekend and you never know, hopefully I can pull it off."
Additional reporting: PA
