Adam Scott leads by 2 at Doral as he looks for 2nd win in a row

Adam Scott isn’t part of the new Big 3. He is, however, having a great Big 3-5.

The 35-year-old of Aussie leads by two shots heading into the weekend at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. That two-shot edge over Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson comes just five days after Scott polished off his 12th PGA Tour win at The Honda Classic, positioning him as the current player with the most PGA Tour wins under the age of 40.

That win came on the heels of a second runner-up finish in this young season, coming up just short against Bubba Watson at the Northern Trust Open.

Obviously, things are going well for Scott. That this would happen wasn’t so obvious. At the end of 2015, Scott appeared to be a sitting duck and one of the few likely victims of the anchoring ban that started on Jan. 1, 2016. So far, Scott is 50th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting, way better than he had been doing in the stat in the waning years of the long putter and anchored stroke.

The confidence Scott has developed with the short game — which isn’t without hiccups but well-managed — has carried throughout his play.

“When you’re playing pretty good anyway, that helps your scoring a lot. I hope I can rely on that the next two days,” Scott said Friday.

The challenge for Scott will be continuing at this pace through the weekend. With McIlroy, Johnson, Bubba Watson and other top-billed players chasing him, the Aussie thinks he’ll need even better on Saturday and Sunday.

“I’d like to find a little extra gear this weekend,” he said. “I think I’ll probably need it to win with the quality of leaderboard we’ve got, and that will be the test for me.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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