Jon Rahm took a leaf out of Rory McIlroy's book as he made a spectacular closing eagle to ignite his bid to be crowned Europe's Number One at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
World Number Two McIlroy had hit what he described as his best shot of the year on the last on day one to set up an eagle and in round two, Rahm followed suit.
The Spaniard had struggled on the front nine as he turned in 37 but he made birdies on the 14th and 16th before putting his second on the 18th to ten feet to leap into a share of second with Tommy Fleetwood.
If the 2019 Race to Dubai were to end on Friday night, Fleetwood would be the man celebrating his second season long title but with 36 holes to go, Rahm is also right in the mix to leapfrog Race to Rankings Presented by Rolex leader Bernd Wiesberger.
"I was jealous of Rory yesterday so I tried to copy that," joked Rahm.
"No, I actually had some doubts. It was 236 metres to the pin, 245 to cover the water on the left side and the wind came in from the right.
"It had to be a perfect five wood to get all the way there. If it missed it could potentially go in the water and for a three wood - long right or long left is not a good spot to be on that hole.
"I decided to be brave on that one and hit as hard a five wood as I could hit and it came out, I could not have hit a better shot."
McIlroy started the day one shot off the lead but ended it six behind Mike Lorenzo-Vera after a 74 that was ten shots more than his first round effort.
"It's a very fickle game," said the two time champion. "I've always said that one day it can seem very easy and someone up there says, 'no, not so fast' and brings you back down to earth. That's golf.
"I battled through it. I'm still in with a shout to have a go at winning this tournament, I just need to stick the head down over the weekend and get in there and try to shoot a couple of good scores."
