There's just some things that happen in golf  - Jon Rahm philosophical after battling 67

Jon Rahm was in philosophical mood after showing all his battling qualities to claw his way right into contention heading into the weekend at the BMW PGA Championship.

The Spaniard came into this week looking to extend his record number of Rolex Series victories to six and would have been full of confidence with two second-placed finishes on his two previous visits to Wentworth Club.

But he was not at his brilliant best in an opening 71 and when he recorded a double-bogey on the first in round two after plugging in the face of a bunker and then dropped another shot on the third, he looked like he might struggle to make the weekend.

He does not have two Major Championships for nothing, however, and after an eagle on the fourth, he birdied the ninth to recover his early losses and made five birdies on the back nine to sign for a 67 and get to six under.

"It's weird what really goes on in the mind of a player," he said. "None of those swings felt bad. 

"If anything, on one, it's an important choice of shot off the tee. A six-iron didn't feel that bad, it was just an unfortunate thing to happen. And then all the swings on three felt good as well.

"So there's just some things that happen in golf and I found myself three over on the fourth tee, but I told (caddie) Adam, if we could bring it back to even par by the time we get to the tenth, you can still post two, three, four under, it's very possible. 

"And I was able to just do that and gain a little bit of confidence after that putt on nine and played a fantastic back nine."

After his early troubles, Rahm left himself just 12 feet for eagle on the fourth, chipped in to save par on the sixth and then holed a 20-footer on the ninth to turn in 35.

He put an approach to three feet on the 11th, got up and down at the par-five 12th, put his tee-shot to four feet on the 14th and then set up a birdie with a 369-yard drive on the 17th before making a two-putt gain on the last.

"You have to put it on the fairway," he said. "Once you're out of position, bogeys happen fairly easily, especially on holes like the third one.

"And so I think if I were to see my stats from four on, it felt pretty good and fairly constant. Even the mis-hits off the tee were in the fairway and I was leaving myself enough chances."