Nick Dougherty put his "shocking" finish to the Wales Open behind him and moved into contention for the BMW International Open in Munich on Friday.
While South African Retief Goosen retained the lead by adding a 68 to his opening 64 - at 12 under par he is now one ahead of Dane Soren Kjeldsen - the 27-year-old from Liverpool grabbed two eagles in a 65 which lifted him from 23rd to joint third with Scot David Drysdale.
And if Dougherty maintains his form over the final two rounds there could be an unexpected bonus in store for him - a place in The Open at Turnberry.
Made aware that two exempt spots are on offer from a mini-Order of Merit in which he currently lies sixth Dougherty said: "I'd love to play, but the best way is to stay in the now and I'm trying to win this."
Three weeks ago at Celtic Manor - the course on which he hopes to make his Ryder Cup debut next year - he shared the lead with a round to play, but then crashed all the way to 37th place with a 79.
"It was an horrific score," he commented. "I felt like I should have won, but I changed my game plan a bit and pressed too hard.
"It's amazing that after eight years on Tour you're still learning things and I certainly learnt from that."
The first of his eagles came on the 481-yard sixth when he hit the flag with a six-iron and stopped four feet away. Then, only three holes later, he made a 35-footer for another.
Goosen went 33 holes without a bogey, but after dropping a stroke at the 441-yard seventh he closed with his 13th birdie of the week.
Kjeldsen matched Dougherty's round just a week after having to pull out of the US Open with an ear infection.
"They wanted to treat it in America, but I wasn't comfortable with that and so came home," he said. "I was given a local anaesthetic so they could drill in and suck out all the infected stuff, then they did it again on Monday before I travelled here.
"It started a few weeks ago when I had a lot of 'flu. I went up to Turnberry to take a look at the course, but on the flight up my ears went."
Drysdale has already made two trips to The Open venue, so excited is he about his first major.
"The first time it was flat calm and I thought it was quite easy, then I played it in a hurricane and thought it was impossible," said the 34-year-old, who back in 1992 played as a marker alongside John Daly on the final day at Muirfield.
"It's pretty similar to my home course Dunbar except that it's a thousand yards longer and an awful lot narrower!"
Ten times a visitor to the Tour qualifying school, he is enjoying his best season ever with second and third place finishes already and a superb 64 now gives him another chance of his first victory.
Daly, meanwhile, missed the cut on level par, while Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie only just made it through on three under after a 71 containing six birdies, but also five bogeys.
"Ridiculous, silly, crazy" were among the words the 46-year-old - it was his birthday on Tuesday - used to describe his rollercoaster ride.
Going much better was 51-year-old Bernhard Langer, whose second successive 68 for eight under gives him another opportunity to become the oldest winner in Tour history.
Langer was full of praise for the game of 20-year-old Rory McIlroy
after playing with him for the first time these last two days, but the young Ulsterman is two further back following a 67.
Former European Open champion Kenneth Ferrie finally made his first cut of the season after returning from the US Tour, but it is now three misses out of three for Shane Lowry as a professional following his amazing Irish Open win as an amateur.
Lowry needed one birdie in the last four holes to survive, but instead bogeyed the 15th and 17th.
Collated second round scores & totals in the European Tour BMW International Open, Golfclub Munchen Nord-Eichenreid, Munich, Germany
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72)
132 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 64 68
133 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 68 65
134 David Drysdale 70 64, Nick Dougherty 69 65
135 Danny Willett 67 68, Thomas Levet (Fra) 68 67, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 66
136 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 68 68, James Kingston (Rsa) 67 69, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 69 67
137 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 71 66, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 68 69, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 67 70, David Lynn 67 70, Peter Lawrie 69 68, Oliver Fisher 68 69, Stephen Dodd 68 69, Richard Finch 66 71
138 Anders Hansen (Den) 69 69, Andrew Coltart 67 71, Scott Strange (Aus) 70 68, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 69, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 69 69, Rory McIlroy 71 67, Luke Donald 70 68, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 67 71
139 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 72 67, Gareth Maybin 71 68, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 68 71, Phillip Price 67 72, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 69 70, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 69, Paul Broadhurst 69 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 69 70, Richard Green (Aus) 71 68
140 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 71, Gary Orr 70 70, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 71 69, John Bickerton 70 70, Johan Edfors (Swe) 71 69, Graeme Storm 70 70, Anthony Wall 74 66, Lee Slattery 70 70, Max Kramer (Aut) 71 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 67 73, Markus Brier (Aut) 69 71, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 70 70, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 69 71, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 72, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 70 70, Chris Wood 71 69, Scott Drummond 71 69, Gary Lockerbie 72 68, Marco Ruiz (Par) 73 67, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 68
141 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 70 71, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 72 69, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 73 68, Colin Montgomerie 70 71, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 70 71, Steven O'Hara 71 70, Kenneth Ferrie 69 72, Seve Benson 70 71, Gary Murphy 71 70, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 70 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 72 69, Phillip Archer 69 72, Barry Lane 68 73, Bradley Dredge 72 69, Michael Hoey 70 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 74
-----------------The following players failed to make the cut--------------------
142 Federico Cabrera (Arg) 74 68, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 68 74, Wil Besseling (Ned) 75 67, Matthew Millar (Aus) 69 73, Alastair Forsyth 76 66, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 70 72, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 73 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 72, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 71 71, David Howell 72 70, Alex Cejka (Ger) 73 69, Brett Rumford (Aus) 70 72, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 70 72, Marcel Haremza (Ger) 74 68, Tano Goya (Arg) 71 71, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 72 70, Mark Foster 72 70, Christopher Doak 71 71, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 69
143 Stuart Davis 71 72, Tino Schuster (Ger) 74 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 72, David Frost (Rsa) 73 70, Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 71, Stephen Gallacher 73 70, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 77 66, Paul Lawrie 72 71, Inder Van Weerelt (Ned) 69 74, Sam Little 74 69, Paul McGinley 68 75, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 75 68
144 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 72, Damien McGrane 71 73, Alan McLean 72 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 74, John Daly (USA) 74 70, Callum Macaulay 73 71, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 73 71, Marc Warren 75 69, Shane Lowry 74 70, Michael Curtain (Aus) 77 67
145 Branden Grace (Rsa) 69 76, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 74, Pablo Martin (Spa) 75 70, Florian Fritsch (Ger) 74 71, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 70 75
146 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 74 72, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 77 69, Benn Barham 72 74, Paul Waring 72 74, Ashun Wu (Chn) 73 73, Taco Remkes (Ned) 74 72, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 76 70, Simon Wakefield 72 74
147 Richard Bland 75 72, John E Morgan 75 72, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 76 71, Marcus Higley 72 75, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 75 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 71 76
148 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 75 73, Anthony Kang (USA) 76 72, Richie Ramsay 75 73, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 74 74, Matjaz Gojcic (Slo) 77 71, Stephan jr. Gross (Ger) 73 75, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 75 73, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 77 71
149 Richard Porter (Ger) 75 74, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 71 78, Ben Parker 77 72, Peter Fowler (Aus) 74 75
150 Anton Haig (Rsa) 77 73, Robert Dinwiddie 74 76, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 74 76, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 77 73, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 75 75
151 Gregory Havret (Fra) 76 75
152 Sven Struver (Ger) 72 80, Miles Tunnicliff 76 76
153 Daniel Froreich (Ger) 75 78
154 Marc Farry (Fra) 80 74, Ake Nilsson (Rsa) 79 75
155 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 74 81
159 Martin Keskari (Ger) 82 77
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