England's Richard Mansell holds a two-shot lead at the midway point, as Padraig Harrington battled his way into the top 10 amid appalling weather conditions in Round 2 at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.
Mansell, playing at the Old Course in St Andrew's, carded five birdies and a single bogey to post the lowest round of the day and climb to 10 under par as strong winds and heavy rain made life difficult for the players at all three of this week's host courses.
Harrington, typically a formidable operator in horrendous weather conditions, carded a superb round of 71 in Kingsbarns.
The Dubliner, a two-time winner of the event in 2002 and 2006, posted an outward nine of 35, with birdies at the 4th and 9th, with a dropped stroke at the 8th.
While all around him, garish-looking numbers were being posted, Harrington battled his way to a steady even par inward nine, with a birdie at 16 only cancelled out by a bogey at the last, to leave him tied-10th after 36 holes.
It was a more trying afternoon for Harrington's compatriots, Rory McIlroy posting a round of 75 to fall back to -1 for the tournament, a triple-bogey at the 14th blighting an otherwise reasonable scorecard.
Two triple bogeys on the back-nine ruined Shane Lowry's card, the 2019 Open Champion struggling to a round of 79 around Kingsbarns, after a bright start with birdies on the opening three holes.
Johnny Caldwell, meanwhile, in impressive shape after an opening round of 68 at Kingsbarns, endured a horror-show on Friday at the Old Course. His round of 81 including an unsightly quintuple bogey at the par-4 9th hole, the Bangor golfer firing his second shot out of bounds, finding another bunker well shy of the green, before three-putting for a 9. He matches Lowry on five over par for the championship.
Further up the leaderboard, Swede Alex Noren was alone in second place on eight under following his 69 at Kingsbarns, with Dane Niklas Norgaard Moller and Frenchman Antoine Rozner in joint-third after their 74s at St Andrews and Carnoustie respectively.
Home favourite Robert MacIntyre was another shot back on six under thanks to his 70 at Kingsbarns.
Having opened his second round at the sixth hole due to the shotgun start at all three courses on Friday morning, Mansell made birdies at the seventh, ninth, 10th and 12th to catapult himself to the top of the leaderboard.
But as the conditions worsened, birdies were suddenly off the agenda and the battle to avoid losing ground became the priority.
Mansell bogeyed the 16th but pulled off some significant par saves elsewhere before notching a birdie at the fifth - his last - to head into the weekend with a two-stroke advantage.
Johannes Veerman & Will Ahmed and Christiaan Burke & Bruce Mitchell co-lead the team event on 19 under par.
Englishman Eddie Pepperell had a day to remember, making a magnificent hole-in-one at Kingsbarns' eighth hole.
He said: "It was just a good shot. It was a 6-iron, just trying to hold it up against a little bit of a right-to-left wind and it pitched online and just rolled down there, fed in. It was a good shot."
