Martin Kaymer is hoping to peak at the right time as he chases down the leaders at the 72° OPEN D'ITALIA presented by DAMIANI.
The two-time Major Championship winner has not claimed a victory since winning the US Open at Pinehurst last year and currently sits three shots off the lead held by Jens Fahrbring and Lucas Bjerregaard at Golf Club Milano.
Despite never seeming to find his full flow over the first two days, the German has recorded scores of 68-66 and is hopeful that another good showing on Saturday can put him in position to challenge down the stretch.
"I feel like I have been playing good for the last couple of months but not good enough to have a chance on Sunday, but it has been getting better and better and hopefully I can give myself a chance to win this weekend," he said.
Kaymer got off to a slow start on Friday as bogeyed the 12th but following an eagle on the 14th, he picked up shots on the 16th, 17th, first, fourth and ninth, although he did not feel at his best.
"I didn't play as well as yesterday in terms of striking the ball but I managed the par fives really well today and played them in five under par and then it was nice to finish off with a birdie to put myself in a really good position for the weekend," he said.
"These are the days you need to enjoy because it was one of those days where I scored better than I played and they do not come along too often – usually it goes the other way!
"The main difference to yesterday was that I missed more fairways than yesterday and six under isn't an amazing score today but ten under for two rounds is not too bad."
Bernd Wiesberger is also at 10 under with a three-putt bogey on the fifth, his 14th, the only blemish on his round of 68 which had four birdies in the first eight holes.
"I played a little bit better than yesterday the first ten, 11 or so holes and then things slowed down," he said. "I had trouble with my pace putting which cost me a little bit and that is something I've got to work on.
"But I'm still in a good position, 10 under on this course through two rounds is pretty good and I can hopefully improve on that over the weekend.
"Early in the round I felt good over the putts and hit good putts and a lot of them went in, that was good. It's just unfortunate that from the tee shot on four onwards I got a couple of not so good swings, a couple of bad breaks, and that resulted in me not progressing on the leaderboard."
First round leader Nicolas Colsaerts is a shot ahead on 11 under after he rescued a 70 with three birdies in his last five holes. The Belgian has now played the 14th to the 18th eight under this week and will continue to target the back nine over the weekend.
"I'm happy with the way I played back nine because the front nine was very poor," he said. "It's never easy to follow a good round like I did yesterday when everything seems to come together but I shot four under on the last eight holes which was good to stay in touch and limit the damage."
He added: "I've always liked playing here, we always play the same type of golf courses and it's nice to have people very close to the tee-boxes like we have here. It's quite entertaining."
