Ireland's Padraig Harrington, looking for his first win this season, took the lead in the Dunhill Links championship today when he shot his second successive six-under par 66.
It put the Dubliner at 12-under under for the tournament and one shot ahead of first round leader Eduardo Romero and two ahead of Sweden's Mikael Lundberg.
It was a stunning performance by Harrington who played the more difficult Kingsbarns course.
The championship is played over three course, Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and St Andrews with the final round being played over the Old Course.
India's Jyoti Randhawa kept himself firmly in contention for the biggest pay cheque of his career when he carded a three-under 69 to be only two behind Harrington.
"It is a bit of a surprise to be near the top of the leaderboard. Links courses are not something we play a lot on," said Randhawa, a four-time winner on the Asian tour.
There was a sparkling return to form for Sandy Lyle. The former Masters champion, who misses more cuts than he makes these days, shot a second round five-under 67 and is only three shots adrift.
The 44-year-old, playing Kingsbarns like Harrington, went out in 31 - thanks to four straight birdies. Lyle could not keep it up on the way home, mixing birdies with bogeys, but it is a long time since he has seen himself near the top of a leaderboard.
Leading second round scores from the Dunhill Links Championship, 2002, at Carnoustie (CN), St Andrew's (SA) and Kingsbarns (KB).
Irish in bold
132- Padraig Harrington(KB) 66-66
133- Eduardo Romero (Arg-KB) 65-68
134- Mikael Lundberg (Swe-CN) 67-67
135- Jyoti Randhawa (Ind-SA) 66-69, Thomas Bjorn (Den-KB) 67-68
136- Nic Lawrence (Rsa-KB) 66-70, Sandy Lyle (KB) 69-67, Santiago Luna (Spa-KB) 67-69, Ignacio Garrido (Spa-KB) 70-66
137- Phillip Price (CN) 69-68, Vijay Singh (Fij-KB) 70-67, Retief Goosen (Rsa-KB) 70-67
138- Gordon Brand Jnr (SA) 71-67, Adam Scott (Aus-SA) 68-70
139- Carl Pettersson (Swe-KB) 69-70, Colin Montgomerie (KB) 70-69, Klas Eriksson (Swe-SA) 72-67, Brian Davis (SA) 70-69, Simon Dyson (CN) 71-68, Paul Eales (CN) 72-67, Ernie Els (Rsa-KB) 72-67
140- Carlos Rodiles (Spa-KB) 70-70, Roger Chapman (SA) 70-70, Maarten Lafeber (Ned-KB) 71-69, Trevor Immelman (Rsa-KB) 73-67, Henrik Stenson (Swe-SA) 70-70, Mark McNulty (Zim-CN) 68-72, Paul Broadhurst (CN) 72-68, Miles Tunnicliff (CN) 69-71, Andrew Coltart (CN) 73-67
141- David Gilford (SA) 72-69, Justin Rose (KB) 70-71, Alan McLean (SA) 76-65, Richard Green (Aus-SA) 71-70, Barry Hume (SA) 74-67
142- Gregory Havret (Fra-SA) 69-73, Rolf Muntz (Ned-SA) 68-74, John Bickerton (SA) 74-68, Paul Lawrie (SA) 74-68, Niclas Fasth (Swe-SA) 71-71, Richard Johnson (Swe-KB) 71-71, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe-SA) 73-69, Raymond Russell (SA) 70-72, James Kingston (Rsa-SA) 76-66, Steve Webster (CN) 71-71, Amandeep Johl (Ind-CN) 70-72, Soren Kjeldsen (Den-CN) 70-72, Garry Orr (CN) 70-72, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa-KB) 71-71,