Jeev Milkha Singh hit back from a bad start to stretch his Irish Open presented by Discover Ireland lead to three strokes in Killarney.
After opening with an eight under par 63, which matched his lowest round on The European Tour, the 39 year old Indian hit his first drive into the hazard beside Lough Leane.
Singh bogeyed that hole and the 418 yard fourth, but also sank an eight foot birdie putt at the second and then picked up more strokes on the seventh and short tenth.
He was nine under par, with Scot Richie Ramsay and Ireland's Damien McGrane next best on six under after Frenchman Alexandre Kaleka, second overnight, resumed with a triple-bogey seven.
Open Champion Darren Clarke mixed three birdies with three bogeys in his first 11 holes to remain two under.
Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, past and present US Open Champions, were among the later starters on one under and one over respectively.
Singh remained nine under with four to go and his lead was down to two when England's Simon Wakefield birdied the 16th and 17th to reach seven under.
Just one further back was 22 year old Northern Irish amateur Paul Cutler, doing his hopes of a Walker Cup cap in September no harm at all with rounds of 69 and 67 which began with him holing his pitch shot to the first for an eagle two on day one.
His goal was to make the cut, but now he was being asked about his chance of emulating friend Shane Lowry, who won the title as an amateur only two years ago.
"I think it would be silly to think I can win it," he said, but when pressed on whether he thought he could he replied: "Yeah, why not?"
Clarke was back to level par and not certain to make the cut when he had a hat-trick of bogeys from the 11th.
