Tom McKibbin surged into contention with a second-round 69 at the the Porsche European Open in Hamburg.
The 20-year-old from Down birdied five holes, including the last, and had just a single bogey to reach five under overall, one shot behind leader Max Kieffer.
Scotland's David Law produced a "pretty unbelievable" second round to share second with McKibbin and Jordan Smith.
Law tamed a 7,455-yard course known as the Green Monster as he fired an eagle and eight birdies in a seven-under-par 66, a nine-shot improvement on his opening 75.
"First of all, seven under is pretty unbelievable," Kieffer, who added a 71 to his opening 69, said when told of Law’s score. "That’s a crazy round of golf.
"It’s playing quite long, even though it’s a bit shorter this year than the last few years. There’s lots of water, the greens are quite undulated.
"If you hit a loose shot here and there, usually on every hole there’s a bit of trouble. It’s a very tough course."
John Murphy will not be around for the weekend after a 79 that contained both a double and triple bogey.
Law could easily have gone even lower than 66 after starting on the back nine and following six birdies in his first eight holes with an eagle on the par-five 18th to be out in 30.
A bogey on the second halted his momentum and although he birdied the fourth and seventh, Law bogeyed his last two holes of the day.
"I went out there just trying to play golf and make birdies and score as low as I can," the 32-year-old said. "The brakes came on a bit on the back nine, but it’s a difficult course, it’s tough.
"The goal is to keep doing what we were doing. I tried hard on the back nine to keep in the present and make birdies like we were, but it didn’t happen. Barring the last two holes we played really nice on that second nine."
