Jason Dufner and Keegan Bradley lead at the halfway stage of the US PGA Championship, but several Europeans are well placed for a weekend challenge.
The two Americans, ranked 80th and 108th in the Official World Golf Ranking, were round in 65 and a best-of-the-day 64 and had taken over at the top from Steve Stricker.
Stricker went round in 74 after his Major record-equalling 63 and now stands two behind and joint seventh along with, among others, leading European Anders Hansen.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy was left wishing he could have one shot again after he also returned a 73 and slipped eight off the pace, but it was not the stroke you might think.
Rather than the moment he injured his right arm against a tree root on day one, it was his six iron tee shot to the short 17th on his return.
Suffering from a strained tendon and thankfully nothing more serious, the 22 year old US Open Champion, his arm still bandaged, had moved only two strokes off third place when he came to his eighth hole of the day.
It came up short in the lake and by three-putting for a triple-bogey six McIlroy's hopes of a second Major title this season suffered a huge blow.
"Even with a broken wrist I should be putting better than this," he said.
"Yesterday there were a couple of points where I thought it might have been better to walk in, but I wanted to play through and I felt like I'm hitting the ball okay.
"When I woke up this morning (after a hospital scan revealed no tear) it was stiff, but it wasn't as painful."
He warmed up on the range and practice putting green for only 25 minutes rather than his usual hour or more, but was never in doubt that he could continue the last Major of the year.
On his triple bogey, McIlroy said: "I was between six and seven iron (a new club sent from California overnight after he broke his original against the tree root) and I ended up going with six, but the wind affected it a little more than I wanted it to."
On the shot that had damaged his arm, meanwhile, McIlroy commented: "Hindsight is a great thing, but looking back it was a mistake in judgement. I thought I would be able to get away with it."
The World Number Four was also asked if caddie JP Fitzgerald should have prevented him from hitting the shot.
"He's my caddie, not my father!" McIlroy replied. "I feel as if I can make birdies out there.
"If I don't think I could contend I probably wouldn't be playing. And if it wasn't a Major I probably would have stopped yesterday."
Stablemate Lee Westwood's pursuit of a first Major - this is the 55th of his career - was very much still alive after a 68 took him to one under.
The Englishman looked exhausted as he finished another slow and hot round, but when asked about the speed of play he quipped: "The last thing I wanted today was to move quicker!"
He went into the tournament vowing to try less in the hope that it would pay dividends.
"It's hard," he added. "It's difficult to try your hardest and not care about the results. They contradict one another.
"But I'm breezing around out there and trying to smile whenever I can and not really worry about what's going on too much.
"I think that's why after bogeying two and three I came back with birdies on four and five (and seven). Maybe the 'trying too hard' me would have bogeyed the next after that."
Westwood had also been in the water on the 457 yard 11th, his second, but got out of it with a bogey and was well satisfied with his day's work in the end.
He had teed off yesterday with Stricker having already posted his 63.
"When you see seven under is leading you are under pressure," Westwood said.
"But I said at the start of the week that I thought six under was going to win and it might still."
World Number One Luke Donald was on one over after a 71, with fellow Englishmen Ross Fisher and Simon Dyson at level par.
Swedes Robert Karlsson and Johan Edfors, and Spain’s Sergio Garcia, are amongst those alongside Donald.
