England's Ross Fisher is the leader after the second round of the 3 Irish Open at Killarney, just missing out on an historic round of 59, instead carding an excellent 61.
The Ryder Cup hopeful is on -12 overnight, three strokes ahead of nearest challenger, Francesco Molinari of Italy.
A storming round from Fisher, who has been off the boil since winning the Volvo World Match Play in Spain last November, included six successive birdies for a front-nine 29 followed by four more in a row from the 11th. This left left Fisher needing just two birdies on the last four to become the European Tour's first player to break 60.
However, he missed from six feet at the 15th, parred the long 16th and failed with birdie attempts on the last two.
"I was standing on the 14th green and it (59) did sort of enter my mind," he said.
"I was quite strong mentally to try and block it out of my mind. I just tried to give myself four chances and I did that, but it wasn't meant to be."
Meanwhile, Padriag Harrington leads the Irish challenge on -7, along with Northern Ireland duo Rory McIlroy and Michael Hoey. Darren Clarke is a shot further back on -6.
Elsewhere, Round One leader David Howell had a terrible day, carding a four over par score of 75 to drop out of contention.
"I played rubbish - as bad as I was good yesterday," he said. "I got off to the worst start and just swung the club poorly."