Russell Henley has a reminder on his phone that goes off every day at midday to tell him he's the best putter in the world.
The 25-year-old from Georgia didn't need one on Friday's second round of the US PGA Tour's the McGladrey Classic.
Playing for the first time since mid-September at the Tour Championship, Henley one-putted 10 greens on the Seaside course at Sea Island and tied his personal best on the PGA Tour with a seven-under-par 63 to take a one-shot lead into the weekend.
Henley sits at nine under for the tournament, one shot ahead of Zimbabwe's Brendon de Jonge (64) and Americans Brian Harman (67) and Andrew Svoboda (66).
When he teed off in the morning chill, he opened with a bogey on No.10 and was simply trying to keep warm.
The only 63 on his mind was whether the temperature would get that high.
It did, and he got hot with his best club in the bag - the putter.
"After the first hole, I was just thinking, 'All right, you've got to hang in there and just be patient and hopefully get something going.' And I did," Henley said.
He managed to turn a horrible drive into a birdie on the 18th hole at the turn, the start of six birdies over his last 10 holes.
"That kept the round going, and then I felt pretty good with my putter," Henley said.
Will MacKenzie (68), Mark Wilson (66) and Fabian Gomez (66) were two shots behind.
Defending champion Chris Kirk hit his first drive of the round into a hazard and made double bogey, but he recovered with five birdies for a 67 that left him only four shots back.
Henley has won in each of his first two years on the PGA Tour, and it was that inaugural win at the Sony Open that brought so much attention to his putting.
He's not suggesting he is the best putter in golf, though it doesn't hurt to tell himself that every day.
"I would say I'm a great putter. And I think if you want to be a great putter, you have to believe that you're a great putter," Henley said.
That's why he added the phone reminder.
"I try to just believe in my putting and enjoy putting, and people always tells me I'm a great putter, so it's pretty easy to keep the confidence going when you're doing that," Henley said.
Stuart Appleby is the best-placed Australian after a round of three under to be two under for the tournament while compatriot Aaron Baddeley dropped to even par after shooting three over.
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