Bubba Watson charges into the lead with a 62

Reporting from Doral, Fla. -- Bubba Watson isn’t all that fond of the TPC Blue Monster.

“This golf course really doesn’t suit me,” Watson said Friday. “Not a big fan of No. 18. I normally play it really bad.”

Imagine if he actually felt comfortable around the joint.

Carving shots around the landscape that others might not even visualize, Watson chased down playing partner Justin Rose with a 10-under-par 62 at the WGC-Cadillac Championship that was that lowest seen around the Monster in a decade and one off the course record.

A daring eagle at Doral’s par-five eighth hole vaulted Watson into the lead, completing two rounds at 12-under 132. Rose’s 64 left him one stroke behind.

“He does it a little bit differently to the way I do,” Rose said. “He takes some lines [off the tee] that I don’t have in the locker.”

And that may not have worked in Thursday’s blustery conditions. But with winds maxing out at little more than 15 mph across Doral Golf Resort & Spa, Watson was at the forefront of a scoring frenzy.

No fewer than 53 of the 74 entrants broke par, and Friday’s scoring average of 69.92 was the second lowest since the WGC stop settled in South Florida in 2007.

“It’s not often you look up and see a 62 at Doral,” said Charles Howell, whose 67 gained no ground on the lead. “I didn’t think it was that scorable.”

The Blue Monster, in fact, hadn’t yielded a 62 since 2001, when Mike Weir posted one in the opening round of what then was known as the Genuity Championship. One year earlier, Stephen Ames set the course record with a 61.

“It certainly could be had,” Tiger Woods said after his bogey-free 67. “You drive the ball well on most of the holes, you’re going to have some short irons in there and you can take advantage of it.”

Scoring conditions were so generous that Woods lost ground. Six shots off the pace to start the day, he was seven back by sundown.

Adam Scott, one of Thursday’s co-leaders, recovered from a rocky stretch midway through the round for a 68 that left him two strokes behind Watson. Sweden’s Peter Hanson was another shot back after a 65.

“It gets your attention right away when you see people on the board throwing birdies up,” Hanson said.

New world No. 1 Rory McIlroy fell 10 shots behind after Friday’s 69. Phil Mickelson shot 71, leaving him 11 behind.

Watson has competed at the Blue Monster just twice before, breaking 70 twice in eight rounds. The lefty says the course “doesn’t fit” his eye, that it’s tough to pick out the fairways from the tee.

On Friday, though, one of the tour’s most creative shotmakers put it on full display. At No. 3, he blasted a drive over water that sailed 30 yards from shore, then curled back into the fairway.

“It’s like, ‘He’s dropping [a penalty shot]. No, he’s safe. Oh, now he’s got a flip wedge in his hand,’ ” Rose said.

After flaring his drive into the rough at No. 6, he opened up a nine-iron and aimed 40 yards right of the green. By the time his ball finished slicing, it set up an eight-foot birdie. “Who draws it up that way?” Watson asked rhetorically.

Watson still trailed Rose, though, heading to No. 8. Facing 225 yards into the wind to reach the pin, he mashed a three-iron that cleared the water by just enough and stopped seven feet from the pin. Eagle.

Surely his feelings about the Blue Monster had mellowed by then.

“No,” Watson quipped. “I still don’t like this golf course.”

jshain@orlandosentinel.com