March 6th 2015, Doral, Florida, U.S.A.: J.B. Holmes said he is hitting the ball "great" through two rounds of the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. But a day after coming within a stroke of tying the course record he was 11 strokes worse and struggled to a 1-over 73.
That's how thin the margin of error is at Trump National Doral.
Still, Holmes is 9 under and has a two-stroke lead over Ryan Moore after 36 holes. Adam Scott is another stroke back alone in third.
"If you had told me that at the beginning of week I would have a two‑shot lead after two rounds, I would have said, all right, sounds good," said Holmes, who is playing in the event for the first time since 2010.
"Played great today. Just had a few loose swings, and today, happened to not go in the right spot."
One of those came on the par-5 first, where Holmes found the water and made bogey.
For the second straight day, Doral showed its teeth. There was less wind but scoring was nearly as high with difficult pin placements and firm greens.
Even world No. 1 Rory McIlroy found the conditions tough. He hit his second shot into the water on the par-5 eighth and threw his 3-iron into the lake after it.
Holmes, meanwhile, ended his round the way he started it -- hitting into the water, this time off the tee on 18 before making double bogey.
"I hit a lot of great shots, and you know, just at the end, the score, like I said, not much difference between this round and (Thursday) in my opinion," Holmes said. "Easily could have shot 6‑under today, so just shows how difficult this course is and how you can get a couple bad breaks and make some numbers."
