Justin Rose admitted even he was surprised at his performance at the DP World Tour Championship on his return to action since the triumphant 2025 Ryder Cup.
The Englishman picked up two points for Team Europe during the historic victory at Bethpage Black against their American hosts.
Rose has not been inside the ropes, competitively, since then, but he appears to have shaken off any ring rust at Jumeirah Golf Estates to sit in a share of second alongside Ryder Cup team-mates Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, in addition to New Zealand's Daniel Hillier and Denmark's Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, at nine under par.
Nicolai Højgaard leads the way at 12 under as he targets a second victory in this event in three years.
After an opening 67, Rose went one better on Friday with a flawless 67 which saw him card five birdies in his first seven holes before parring his way home to keep his card clean.
"In some ways I've played amazing golf this week and there's other elements of my game where I do feel super rusty," Rose said.
"I think probably driven the ball fantastically so far. Iron play has been sharp. Putter probably not so much.
"Today was a weird day on the greens, again struggling to read them but then holed two really, really long ones, a 65-footer and maybe a 40-footer. So I guess it comes out in the wash a bit.
"Even though I'm scoring great and playing well, hopefully over the weekend can get my irons on and around the greens a bit more."
The World Number Ten birdied the first two holes for the second day running on the Earth Course before a hat-trick of birdies from the fifth, including a huge 65-foot effort at the sixth, saw him share the lead at nine under.
He could not improve any further as he parred the next 11 holes, although he produced one of the par saves of the day at the 14th when drained his 43-foot putt after finding the water with his approach into the par-five hole.
Justin Rose took six weeks off after winning the Ryder Cup. Now back in action, he's T2 heading into the weekend after a bogey-free second round 💪#DPWTC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/TlP5gtLfND
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 14, 2025
"Got off to a strong start yesterday and got off to a strong start today," he added. "Holed a monster putt at six and two great shots at number seven, felt like there were a lot of chances to be had.
"Number ten I felt was a good chance and 11 was a good chance, and then gets a bit trickier to be honest with you.
"Even 14 - the par-five 14 - is a really, really tight pin, caught in between two wind directions and two clubs on 14 and hit a poor, poor shot obviously into the water there. Holed a 40-footer out of the blue to save par.
"Picking your chances coming in was a bit tricky, even 18 is such a chain-reaction hole. You hit one poor shot you're really out of position, and it's a birdie hole but at the same time you can make six on 18 in a heartbeat. Happy to grind it out coming in and keep a clean card."
