Shane Lowry, yet another rising Irish golf star, became only the second amateur to lead a European Tour event at the halfway stage on Friday.

And the 22-year-old plus-five handicapper did it in quite spectacular fashion in the 3 Irish Open - his first Tour event - at rain-lashed County Louth.

While local hero Padraig Harrington failed to survive the halfway cut despite improving five shots on his opening 73 and American star John Daly went out as well, the little-known Lowry scorched round the Baltray links in a magical 10-under-par 62.

And that matches the lowest round ever achieved by an amateur on the circuit, by German Sven Struver 20 years ago.

"It's like a dream really - when do I wake up?" he said after taking a two-stroke lead over England's Robert Rock and Welshman Jamie Donaldson.

"This is as good as I can ask for and it's hard not to think about winning now, but I'm just going to go out and play as best I can."

Listed at 16th in the world amateur rankings and the son of a famous Gaelic footballer, Lowry's 36-hole total of 129, 15 under, is the best by an amateur in Tour history.

His 62 would also have broken the course record but for the fact that just over an hour earlier Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell blitzed an incredible 61 - the lowest round of his professional career and an unbelievable 16-stroke improvement on his opening 77.

Those were not the only two dramatic rounds, however. Former Open champion Paul Lawrie won himself a £40,000 car for a hole-in-one on the 17th as he kept alive his hopes of a first victory for seven years.

Lawrie had his second successive 66, but that was good enough only for fourth place, three behind Lowry.

Collated second round scores & totals

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

129 Shane Lowry 67 62

131 Robert Rock 66 65, Jamie Donaldson 66 65

132 Paul Lawrie 66 66

133 Roope Kakko (Fin) 66 67, Nick Dougherty 66 67, Thomas Levet (Fra) 67 66

134 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 67 67, Oliver Wilson 66 68, Lee Westwood 68 66, Johan Edfors (Swe) 64 70

135 Wil Besseling (Ned) 69 66, Gary Orr 68 67, Colin Montgomerie 70 65, Alastair Forsyth 67 68, Pablo Martin (Spa) 70 65, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 67 68, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 69 66

136 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 63 73, Chris Wood 69 67, Anders Hansen (Den) 68 68, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 67, Lee Slattery 67 69, Marc Warren 67 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 67 69, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 66

137 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 66 71, Ross Fisher 70 67, David Horsey 70 67, Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 68, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 66, Rory McIlroy 69 68, David Drysdale 69 68, Stephen Dodd 70 67, Julien Clement (Swi) 67 70

138 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 69, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 69, Steve Webster 70 68, Graeme McDowell 77 61, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 68 70, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 67, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 67, Sam Little 72 66

139 Richard Bland 71 68, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 72 67, Paul Waring 72 67, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 68, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 69 70, Simon Dyson 71 68, Darren Clarke 71 68, Graeme Storm 70 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 70, Gary Lockerbie 69 70, Brett Rumford (Aus) 73 66, Gary Murphy 70 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 68, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 72 67, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 70, Paul McGinley 71 68

140 David Carter 71 69, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 73 67, Damien McGrane 69 71, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 68 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 70 70, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 74 66, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 68, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 68 72, Paul Broadhurst 71 69, Simon Khan 72 68, Anthony Wall 72 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 70, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 69 71

Missed cut:

141 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 68 73, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 74 67, Richie Ramsay 72 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 69, Robert Dinwiddie 67 74, Steven O'Hara 70 71, Kenneth Ferrie 71 70, Seve Benson 74 67, Anthony Kang (USA) 69 72, Stephen Gallacher 68 73, David Dixon 72 69, Richard Finch 73 68, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 76 65, Bradley Dredge 71 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 73 68, Padraig Harrington 73 68

142 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 75 67, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 73, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 72 70, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 73 69, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 70 72, Des Smyth 72 70, Richard Green (Aus) 71 71, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 78 64

143 Jonathan Caldwell 76 67, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 73 70, Benn Barham 75 68, Peter Lawrie 72 71, Oliver Fisher 73 70, John Daly (USA) 68 75, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 75 68, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 72, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 71 72, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 76 67

144 Eamonn Brady 71 73, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 73, David Howell 71 73, Scott Strange (Aus) 76 68, Rhys Davies 73 71, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 71 73, Eoin Arthurs 76 68, John Bickerton 77 67, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 72 72, Barry Lane 73 71, Robert Giles 72 72

145 Noel Fox 72 73, Gareth Maybin 73 72, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 69 76, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 74, David Frost (Rsa) 70 75, Simon Wakefield 71 74, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 74 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 74 71, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 72 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 73 72, Ross McGowan 73 72

146 Barrie Trainor 73 73, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 71 75, Taco Remkes (Ned) 76 70, Phillip Price 71 75

147 Michael Mcgeady 75 72, Zane Scotland 76 71, Philip Walton 74 73, John Kelly (USA) 73 74, Scott Drummond 75 72, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 74 73, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 73 74

148 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 74 74, Anton Haig (Rsa) 74 74, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 76 72, James Kingston (Rsa) 71 77, Scott Arnold (Hkg) 78 70, Phillip Archer 72 76, Simon Thornton 76 72

149 Estanislao Goya (Arg) 70 79

150 Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 74 76, Mark Foster 74 76

153 Damian Mooney 76 77

154 John Dwyer 77 77

DQ: Michael Hoey, Francesco Molinari (Ita)

RTD: Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), David Lynn