The players chasing leaders Thomas Björn and Tom Lewis were hoping to take advantage of perfect conditions in the second round of The 140th Open Championship.
Unlike Thursday, the early starters at Royal St George's were greeted by a warm morning with no wind as they set about catching Denmark's Björn and 20 year old English amateur Lewis.
Björn had defied the worst of the opening day conditions to card a 65, five under par, which was not matched until late in the day when Lewis took advantage of calmer weather to shoot the lowest score by an amateur in Open history.
However, 33 players were within four shots of the lead, with US Open Champion Rory McIlroy recovering from a poor start to card a one over par 71 alongside World Number One Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
Despite the good conditions, it took a while for the early starters to make an impact on the leaderboard, with American Kyle Stanley and Spain's Pablo Larrazabal - recent winner of the BMW International Open in Munich – both parring the first six holes before Stanley eagled the par five seventh to move to four under and just one off the lead.
Darren Clarke, second at Troon in 1997 and third at Lytham in 2001, missed a good chance to close the gap to the leaders when he failed to convert a birdie putt from eight feet on the first but he birdied the par three third from twice as far to move within two strokes of the leaders.
Former US Open champion Lucas Glover also let a birdie chance slip by in the following group on the first but then birdied the second from four feet to join the leaders at five under par.
Clarke's hopes suffered a major blow on the fourth, where he missed the green with his approach, duffed a chip which ran back down to his feet and ran up a double bogey six.
Glover had also dropped out of the lead with a bogey on the fourth after driving into a fairway bunker, leaving Lewis and Bjorn still in the lead as Lewis prepared to get his round under way.
He had again been joined on that score by Glover, but the 31 year old will have been disappointed to make just a birdie on the par five seventh, missing from five feet for an eagle.
In the group ahead Clarke had showed Glover how it should be done, holing from around 60 feet and just off the green for eagle and then adding a ten footer at the next for birdie to move to four under par.
Westwood had looked set to mount a charge when he birdied the first from six feet, but a poor approach to the second left him in an awkward position at the back of the green, from where he took three putts.
