Adam Scott made a serious run up the leaderboard late in Friday’s second round of the World Golf Championships Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral.

The world No.5 shot a four-under-par 68 on day two to move to six under for the tournament in a tie for second and just three off the lead, still held by overnight pacesetter JB Holmes.

Holmes is one over but nine under overall through 14 holes of round two to be three ahead of Scott and fellow American Ryan Moore, who is even through 15 holes.

World No.4 Jason Day continued his struggles with a 74 to drop to six over while world No.1 Rory McIlroy is one under overall with a hole to play despite throwing a club in the water following a poor swing on the eighth hole.

Scott, playing in his first event for two-and-a-half months, jumped out of the blocks with a birdie on the 10th hole, his first. Scrambling on the next two holes enabled the Queenslander to stay on track, making a clutch 21-foot par-saving putt on the 11th and then recovering from a water-bound tee shot on the 12th with another par.

Scott’s transition to the short putter continues to be working wonders with the flat stick firing so far.

A 13-foot birdie putt landed on the 14th and, while he missed a chance from 12 feet on the following hole, he didn’t miss opportunities on 16 and 17 to continue his charge.

Back-to-back bogeys on the third and fourth holes, his 12th and 13th, threatened to sink Scott’s run but the 34-year-old refused to yield. He nearly holed out for eagle from 105 yards on the sixth before tapping in for birdie and then drained a putt from 19-feet on the eighth to scrub the damage from his mistakes.

“I’ve played solid for a couple days. I putted solid and my short game’s been solid,” Scott said.

“So I’m quite pleased with all the work I’ve done leading up to this event at home and somehow managed to take it out on the course in competition, so it’s a really good starting point for the year, and hopefully build on that on the weekend.”

John Senden is the next best Australian, making a run of his own into a tie for ninth. Senden is three under through 15 holes to be two under overall. The rest of the Australians are struggling with Geoff Ogilvy four over and Greg Chalmers and Steven Jeffress five over.