Lee Westwood produced an astonishing charge in an attempt to give runaway leader Rory McIlroy - his stablemate - something to think about at the US Open Championship.
Congressional Country Club's back nine is rated much the harder of the two, but after a hattrick of birdies from the 13th Westwood then rolled home a 20 foot putt for eagle at the 570 yard next.
Suddenly, having been down in 84th spot after his opening 75, the World Number Two - also chasing his first Major title after a string of near-misses - was in second place.
Two closing pars meant a joint best-of-the-week 65 and a five under aggregate of 208.
That was the good news. The bad was that McIlroy, a record-equalling six in front of the field at halfway, had played the first eight holes in one under.
That put the 22 year old, bidding to become the youngest winner since Bobby Jones in 1923 and the second successive Northern Irishman after Graeme McDowell, to 12 under par and seven clear.
Not that Westwood was ready to give up the chase.
“They don't give trophies away on Fridays and Saturdays,” he said.
“I drove the ball great. I put myself in position to be able to attack the flags. If you drive the ball well around this golf course, it's scoreable.
“I've set a target on Friday night - that's all you can do when you're chasing a big lead. I can't control how Rory is going to play, nor can he control my game, so I'll do that.
“I'm happy to be in the tournament. I thought I was going home after my round on Thursday, I played dreadful.
“My mission was to get myself somewhere into the tournament. I said maybe if I can get to ten under at the weekend, but you don't know how Rory is going to do. You don't know how he's going to deal with the big lead. He had a big lead in a Major and didn't deal with it well before. There's pressure on him with regards to that, so we'll see - all I can do is control my game and try and shoot as low a score as possible for me.”
