Bob MacIntyre discovered an additional gear on day two of the Porsche European Open because he started up a commanding four-shot direct in Hamburg at the halfway stage.
After leader Paul Casey struggled to a 73 MacIntyre took great advantage of the day weather and fired a 63 despite making just one birdie over the five par-fives.
The Scot stormed to the peak of the leaderboard on 11-under level, four obvious of Bernd Ritthammer, although Casey is now six off the pace because he continued to battle a difficult layout as well as a throat disease.
MacIntyre has had a rookie season in the Tour, with finishes in May along with a tie for sixth in The 148th Open at Royal Portrush, and he is currently in place to land his success on Tour.
The talented left-hander’s scorecard featured a notable 11 threes – six of them for birdie, and even though he was not able to pick up shots at the long 15th or 16th, he hit on the final green in 2 and readily two-putted for his seventh birdie of the day.
“I just stuck to my game plan,” said the composed 23-year-old. “It is most likely the best I have driven a chunk – maybe this year. It’s not going straight, it is heading miles. It’s working so I am just going to try and continue to do it although I really don’t know what I’m doing.
“I can only control what I can control and that is swinging the golf club for every individual shot. That’s all I’m going to perform over the weekend and hopefully I can continue to keep the scores. It’s going to be hard, particularly when it’s my first time with such an outcome.
“I’m going to get to learn from that adventure, I am only doing the right things on the program, doing the correct things off the course. I’m relaxed and nice and everything in the home’s been brilliant so I’m in the ideal mindset for going out there this weekend”
Ritthammer gave the home fans a lot to cheer late in the day after he birdied three of their final four holes to cap a blemish-free 66 which increased him to seven under and in second place, with Casey along with Matthias Schwab and Guido Migliozzi around five under.
Casey dropped further shots at 14 and 13 and began with a bogey at the 10th, before rebounding back at the short fifth with a two from a second bogey at the next, however he regrouped and clawed two shots back in 18 and 15.
He missed a chance to contact par for the day in the ninth, but he was delighted with his fightback from this a poor beginning although he was happy about the setup of the course.
“I’m really very satisfied with one over as it is such a challenging golf course,” Casey said. “Attitude is the key, ” I had a great attitude and luckily there were choices to create birdies if you stay with it, however, it is very tough.
“Not every course should be simple every week, but if it had been me I’d go up the temptations here because you are earning a lot more attention into the way this program is played. Risks would be more in drama and I’d love to find guys going to it. Right now it is very, very difficult, almost sort of defensive, which isn’t so enjoyable.”
Xander Schauffele, the highest-ranked participant in the field this week, made a spirited reaction to his introduction 73 since he shot into red numbers with a four-birdie 69 that lifted the world No 9 to 2 beneath alongside Thomas Pieters, that found water in the final and ran up a seven to register to get a unsatisfactory 72.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed was two over for the championship and staring at a cut over after five holes, however, he dug deep into salvage a 72 that got him safely into the weekend to two-over par.
However, his fellow American Matt Kuchar would fly home early.
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