Martin Kaymer continued his remarkable love affair with Abu Dhabi Golf Club as he fired a second consecutive 66 to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The German has lifted the trophy three times, with two further top-three finishes in his ten visits, and he took a familiar position at the top of the leaderboard on 12 under as he hunts title number four.
A victory on Sunday afternoon would give him his first win since the 2014 US Open and see him join Tiger Woods, Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer, Charl Schwartzel, Seve Ballesteros, Mark McNulty, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Sir Nick Faldo as a player to win the same European Tour event four times.
Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello also signed for a 66 to sit at 11 under as he too looks to end a winning drought and claim his first title since the 2012 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat was then at ten under alongside Ireland's Paul Dunne and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, a shot clear of 2014 champion Pablo Larrazábal, Open champion Henrik Stenson, reigning Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Jeunghun Wang and Tyrrell Hatton.
Kaymer made a slow start and was one over for the day stood on the eighth tee but an eagle on the par five after a brilliant approach kick-started his round and he made birdies on the tenth and 11th.
Another bogey came on the 12th but he birdied the 13th, chipped in for another gain on the next and when he holed a monster putt on the 16th, he had caught Cabrera Bello, who had set the target in the morning.
A birdie on the par five last then moved him into the lead and pole position to secure his place in the history books over the weekend.
"I don't try to push, I just try to enjoy playing my favourite golf course," he said. "Once in a while when a putt drops in you catch momentum and you can make another three or four birdies coming in, like it happened today. I think I made only two pars on the back nine.
I don't try to push, I just try to enjoy playing my favourite golf course - Martin Kaymer
"So pushing, I have that experience with pushing.
"I felt like I played a little bit better than yesterday. It was a bit more difficult today with the wind, especially the first nine. I struck the ball a little bit better and I made a few long putts today, same as yesterday."
Cabrera Bello made gains on the 12th, 13th - where he yesterday made a double-bogey - 15th and 16th before dropping a shot on the sixth but the best was yet to come.
An excellent tee-shot on the par three seventh set up a bounceback birdie and he then took advantage of the par five eighth before finishing with another birdie.
Fleetwood bogeyed his first hole on Thursday but has not dropped a shot in his next 35 to move up the leaderboard with a 67, while Dunne signed for a 66 with an eagle and a single bogey.
Aphibarnrat birdied his final two holes in a second-round 68.
Spain's Larrazábal birdied all four of the par threes on his way to a 67 while South Korean Wang was bogey-free in making the same score.
Hatton threatened to make a big move as he turned in 32 but came home in level par while Stenson played a wonderful bunker shot on the last with a wood in his 71.
UBS Hong Kong Open champion Sam Brazel was then at eight under alongside England's Chris Paisley after both men fired rounds of 65, a score equalled by Australian amateur Curtis Luck who was a shot further back in a group including Austria's Bernd Wiesberger and 23-time Tour winner Lee Westwood.
