Swede Robert Karlsson charged through the field in the BMW PGA Championship third round at Wentworth Club - the morning after he flew back home to Monte Carlo thinking he was out of the event.
The 2008 European Number One was one of the early finishers on Friday and at three over par thought he had no chance of surviving the halfway cut.
On that basis he decided to catch a flight and it was only when he was at the doors of his house when he discovered things had changed.
Karlsson returned via Paris, made his 8.55am tee-off time and promptly birdied four of the first six holes to leap to one under par and joint 21st spot, only five strokes behind overnight leader Luke Donald.
He had started the day in a tie for 63rd with, among others, 18 year old Korean Noh Seung-yul, whose win in the Maybank Malaysian Open in March made him the second youngest European Tour champion ever.
Noh matched Karlsson's start and, by adding a fifth birdie at the ninth, turned in a best-of-the-week 30 to be joint 12th on two under.
Scot Alastair Forsyth was another to go home believing his week's work was over, but Glasgow back to London proved an easier trip than Monte Carlo to London and he also made a bright opening.
After grabbing a birdie at the difficult third Forsyth eagled the 552 yard next to be up to level par.
Karlsson added a fifth birdie on the seventh to be only four off the lead, and when Noh's sixth birdie came at the short 14th he had moved into a tie for ninth spot.
There was a disappointing finish to Noh's round - he needed four to find the green at the 17th after driving in the trees and ran up a bogey six, then missed a six foot birdie putt on the last.
The teenager handed in a 66 for two under and attention turned to Karlsson, whose sixth birdie at the 12th took him to three under and joint ninth.
