Padraig Harrington is just three shots adrift of Jordan Spieth at the halfway stage of the Travelers Championship as Rory McIlroy struggled to make the cut at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut.
Overnight leader Spieth followed up his opening-day 63 with a less impressive 69, thanks in part to a double bogey on the 13th hole, yet he sits one stroke ahead of Troy Merritt and Patrick Reed.
Harrington is tied for eighth after a round of 69 that sees him at five-under par.
The 45-year-old picked up his first bogey of the competition at the par-four seventh after finding the rough from the tee.
He quickly recovered at the 202-yard par-three eighth, holing from eight yards for birdie. In a steady back nine, Harrington made eight pars and a birdie, with a fantastic approach shot allowing him the eight yard birdie opportunity at the 12th which he duly took.
World number three McIlroy, who missed the cut at the US Open last week, found four bogeys over the back nine to fall into a share of 69th place on level par, ensuring he made the cut by a single shot.
McIlroy managed to make par at one point after hitting a tee shot into a water hazard, and he later told Golf Channel: "I would have taken a par after the tee shot. Could have made birdie, but didn't."
Two birdies in the opening three holes saw Seamus Power rise up the leaderboard, but dropped shots at four and six, and a disappointing double bogey at the final hole saw the Waterford man card a 71 and fall three shots outside the cut.
Spieth recovered from his early double bogey with three birdies across his next eight holes and afterwards confessed it was his putting that saved his round.
After taking only 29 putts to finish on Friday, the Texan said: "I wouldn't say I played my B-game. I think I've been up there playing pretty solid golf.
"It's just, hitting more greens. The ones I missed, I didn't really need to miss. I was trying to do too much. That's kind of what gets me in trouble on a course like this."
Johnson Wagner and Brett Stegmaier were a stroke behind Spieth after day one but both Americans followed 64s with 72s to slip out of strong positions.
That left Merritt and Reed as the closest title challengers on seven under while Patrick Rodgers was one of the day's biggest movers, his five-under 65 boosting him to within three strokes of the lead.
