Ross Fisher stormed to the top of the leaderboard in sensational fashion in the 3 Irish Open at the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club.
The Englishman, who shot a two under par 69 in his first round yesterday, fired an astonishing ten under par 61 today - the lowest round of his European Tour career, eclipsing the 63 he shot en route to winning The European Open in 2008.
His overall score of 12 under gave him a five shot lead over a burgeoning chasing pack.
That included Denmark's Anders Hansen, Australia's Brett Rumford, Spain's Gonzalo Fdez-Castaño, South Korea's Seung-yul Noh, Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey.
Italy's Francesco Molinari was also in the group after four holes today.
Fisher, who did not drop a shot, burst into the lead courtesy of a staggering 10 birdies.
The first six came successively, starting on the third, and he hit four more in a row from the 11th to the 14th - all par fours.
That put him in sight of the European Tour's first round of 59, but he parred the final four holes to finish two off that mark.
Fisher said: "Not until I got onto the 14th did I think 'If I knock this in I've got a chance', so I was a bit annoyed when I missed the putt on 15 and after the 16th I thought I've got to do it the hard way.
"It didn't happen, but I'll take 61. It's been coming for a while - that's as good as I've putted since the Match Play and that's all I've been struggling with.
"It's been a frustrating year. The Ryder Cup was one of the goals I set myself and I want to be on that team. I want Monty to be looking at me and if I still need a pick at the end then hopefully I will be one of the fortunate ones."
Yesterday's clubhouse leader David Howell had a poor day though, only managing a four over par score of 75 to drop out of contention.
And he could not hide his disappointment after his poor round.
"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.
"I just didn't know where it was going to go and it was a case of hanging on, which I did. It could have been worse, to be honest, and I've got two nice days now to crack on and finish high up."
