Marc Warren carded an excellent round of 66 to join Danny Willett at the top of the leaderboard midway through day two of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation, with World Number Three Rory McIlroy just a shot behind.
The Masters Tournament champion came into the second round two shots clear of McIlroy at the K Club and all eyes were on the two highest ranked players in the field as they slugged it out for supremacy.
Twice McIlroy caught Willett, but twice the World Number Nine pulled away again before Warren birdied three of his last four holes to set the clubhouse target at eight under.
A late bogey saw Willett drop alongside Warren and sign for a 71, with McIlroy recording a 70 as he made the cut at his home Open for the first time in four years.
Willett has two wins this season while McIlroy has not finished outside the top ten, but it is a stunning return to form for Warren, who had missed six cuts in nine starts.
Willett started where he had left off on Thursday and birdied the tenth to stretch his lead to three shots but McIlroy closed the gap back to two with a gain of his own on the 13th.
Willett - playing in the group behind - then bogeyed the same hole after finding the trees off the tee and when he found a nasty lie in the right rough and flew his chip over the pin on the 15th, he did well to get down in two but his lead was gone.
The 28 year old edged back ahead as he took advantage of the par five 16th and with McIlroy going right off the tee on the 17th and hitting a poor chip, the lead was soon back at two.
McIlroy reduced the gap again with a birdie on the reachable par five 18th but just as he did on day one, Willett followed suit.
A 31-foot putt from the four-time Major Championship winner saw the advantage cut again but McIlroy missed the green off the tee and bogeyed the third before Willett took three putts to bogey the second.
There was a real ebb and flow about play and when McIlroy took advantage of the par five fourth, the lead had once again disappeared. In typical fashion for the day, it was soon back at two as McIlroy bogeyed the fifth and Willett birdied the fourth.
Warren had turned in 34 with birdies at the 13th, 15th and 18th and remained three under for his round on the sixth tee, where he made another birdie.
The Scotsman then chipped in at the eighth to briefly reduce the gap back to one but a second consecutive Willett birdie from 12 feet on the fifth got him to nine under.
Another gain on the last had Warren within one and when Willett hit a poor chip on the seventh, the lead was shared.
McIlroy then rolled in a birdie from 20 feet on the ninth to get to seven under.
Jaco Van Zyl was at four under after a 72 and he was joined there by fellow South African Richard Sterne who carded an impressive 68 with just a single bogey.
Jorge Campillo, Jamie Donaldson, Eddie Pepperell, Richie Ramsay, Brett Rumford, Callum Shinkwin and Chris Wood were then a further shot back.
