A second round 66 sees Ross Fisher take over the lead on six under at the half-way stage of the ISPS Handa Wales Open at Celtic Manor.
First round leader Lee Slattery, who is US Open-bound after qualifying on Monday lies second after he carded 71 to his opening 67. Chris Wood, Fabrizio Zanotti and Thongchai Jaidee are all a shot further back.
Damien McGrane and Simon Thornton are the best of the Irish on level par after rounds of 71 and 73 respectively.
Fisher has not had a single top-five finish for almost 18 months.
After his round, he said: "I guess it's the dreaded curse of the comedown from the Ryder Cup. You have such high expectations and it's been disappointing."
He now stands 157th in the world, is not in the field for the upcoming US Open - he had a chance to win that three years ago - and is down at 72nd on the Ryder Cup points table with only 12 weeks of the race to go.
Amazingly, there are 19 other English players ahead of him in that.
"Once you've played one you don't want to miss one. It's still a goal of mine, but it's a big outside goal at the moment because I've got to play damn well to get on that team.
"I made an equipment change this year - I just felt the time was right - and it's probably taken me longer to adjust than I would have liked.
"But if I can play how I've played the first two days, especially today, I feel like I'm really tough to beat.
"It's always nice to come back to a good hunting ground. The Ryder Cup was a great experience - I played really well and really enjoyed it."
Fisher's round actually began with a bogey six, but then came four birdies and two more to finish with from 12 and five feet established a lead that at one point was four shots.
Lee Slattery did well to come back into the picture after three bogeys in his first eight holes.
A 50-foot putt on the next revived his spirits, he then made a 25-footer for eagle on the 562-yard 11th and he holed from 18 feet on the last.
Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal will not be around for the weekend.
A triple bogey seven on the 16th ended his hopes and coming off the final tee he even gave a youngster in the crowd his driver before completing a 75 and nine over aggregate.
Scot Paul Lawrie, second in the cup standings after his runners-up finish in the BMW PGA Championship last Sunday, made it through on one over thanks to a 69 and 2010 captain Colin Montgomerie survived as well at four over.
