Marcus Armitage was happy to be in a "good place" as his brilliant form continued with a surge into contention at the 2026 Dubai Invitational.
The Englishman briefly shared the lead during the second round after picking up his fourth birdie of the day at the fourth to sit alongside Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Thriston Lawrence at the summit at four under.
Armitage finished his round with his third bogey at the ninth to sit in a share of third with David Puig and, despite that minor setback, he made it ten events in a row since missing his last cut, which came at the 2025 BMW PGA Championship in September.
When asked about this great run of form, Armitage joked: "Hope I don't miss this cut!
"No, just basic stuff. I'm in a good place. I've been out here a long time now and just keep working and trying to strive for more.
"Tell myself good positive stories every day instead of negative ones, and that's thanks to my psychologist that's really helped me with that.
"Just enjoying it. Just trying to strive for more and that's pretty much it."
He sits two shots behind co-leaders Lowry and Nacho Elvira, who birdied four of his last six holes to get to five under, and Armitage was thrilled with his new equipment at Dubai Creek Resort.
"It's all an exciting time at the start of the year, all the manufacturers bring new stuff out," the 38-year-old said.
"I love tinkering. So we've got a new Titleist driver in the bag and TaylorMade fairways, and a bit firmer golf ball this week."
On his seond-round 70, he added: "I created a lot of chances. I controlled the golf ball fairly well for the majority of the holes which gave me a lot of chances.
"Unfortunately I couldn't make a few more putts and had a poor finish down the last.
"But yeah, it's Friday. You're just trying to keep yourself somewhere near the top of the leaderboard going into the weekend."
