American Cameron Young held a three-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic as defending champion Rory McIlroy remained well off the pace.
Young added a second round of 64 to his opening 67 at Emirates Golf Club to reach 13 under par, with England's Andy Sullivan and Poland's Adrian Meronk his nearest challengers on 10 under.
World number two McIlroy is ten shots behind the leader after a frustrating 70 to follow up his opening round 71.
Birdies at two and seven were handed back at eight and nine as the Irish golfer struggled to find the fairway off the tee.
A birdie at the par-five 10th was immediately handed back at the par-three 11th but he got himself back in the red for his round via birdies at 13 and 18.
His Holywood clubmate Tom McKibbin is a shot further back on two under after a round of 70 which featured two bogeys, two birdies and an eagle three at the 13th.
It wasn't to be for Padraig Harrington on his 2024 bow, as he carded a second round 79 for an eight-over 36 hole total, which left him well outside the cut mark.
Young, who has yet to win on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour, however is the man to catch . He carded nine birdies and a solitary bogey on the ninth, his final hole of the day, after finding the water left of the green with his approach.
"I putted fantastic," the world number 25 said. "I made a couple of long ones yesterday and then made a few more today that had no right going in I feel like.
"I hit a bunch of good putts, but just one of those days where you kind of have a couple of 30-footers and you look up and they are going right in the middle, which doesn't happen all that often to have a bunch of them in one round.
"I'm doing a really good job of staying out of my own way. Kind of realised it was going well early, but the back nine, at the same time, it feels like you should do that to some extent, especially in the morning with not much wind."
Meronk, who won three times on the DP World Tour last year and was voted player of the year by his peers, added a flawless 66 to his opening 68, while Sullivan returned a second successive 67.
"The experience [of winning] gives you a little more confidence that you've done it before, so you can do it again," Meronk said.
"The key is just to stick to your plan for your game, trust your shots, full commitment. Don't get too ahead of yourself.
"It's easy to say, but I think you have to experience it first and then it gets easier, but it's never easy. But at least I have some experience under my belt."
Japan's Masahiro Kawamura threatened to card just the second 59 in DP World Tour history when he covered his first 12 holes in 10 under par thanks to an eagle and eight birdies, but bogeyed his penultimate hole and had to settle for a 63.
Nevertheless, that was a 12-shot improvement on his opening round and lifted Kawamura into a tie for seventh on six under par.
