Frenchman Gregory Bourdy admitted that a "special" opening nine holes laid the foundations for him to extend his lead after the second round of the European Tour's Lyoness Open in Austria.
Starting the day two ahead, the 33-year-old took advantage of his early tee time to increase the pressure on his challengers.
Beginning at the 10th he carded five birdies to turn in 31 at the Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg. His first bogey of the week at the first halted his momentum briefly before he picked up another stroke at the short sixth to finish with a 67 for a 12-under total and a four shot advantage over fellow Frenchman, Gary Stal, and Bristol's Chris Wood.
"I started very strongly. It is good to play like this after a nice round yesterday," said Bourdy, a former Scottish Youths' Open Amateur champion. "After the front nine I had a chance to play better than yesterday but unfortunately had a bogey. The front nine today was special - five under was very good with some great shots and nice putts."
As Bourdy prospered, Russian golfer Andrey Pavlov had a nightmare start to his second round after carding a 17 at the par-five first hole having found the water six times.
The 28-year-old, who finished 26-over at this event 12 months ago and is playing his first European Tour event of the year on a tournament invitation, tied the joint-second worst number of strokes on a single hole in European Tour history - joining Chris Gane, who made the same score at Gleneagles in 2003, with only Philippe Porquier's 20 at the 1978 French Open worse.
He eventually signed for an 18-over 90, having carded a one-under 71 in his opening round, which had given him a chance of making his first-ever cut in 15 attempts on both the European and Challenge Tours.
Elsewhere in the field, the Scottish duo of David Drysdale and Andrew McArthur finished on the fringes of the top 20 with 141s while Scott Jamieson was a stroke further back on 142.
On the European Challenge Tour, Jamie McLeary was sitting in a share of seventh place heading into the closing two rounds of the KPMG Trophy in Belgium. The Scot illuminated his five-under 67 with a hole-in-one on the 13th - his fourth hole - as he finished four shots off the lead with a six-under 138.
Australian veteran Peter Fowler moved to the head of the field in the European Senior Tour's ISPS Handa PGA Seniors Championship at Close House near Newcastle.
Fowler posted a five-under 67 for a seven-under 137 and finished one stroke clear of Englishman Carl Mason.
Andrew Oldcorn and Fraser Mann, the winner of the PGA Senior Club Professionals' title recently, were the best of the Scots on 144.
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