Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy were closing in on leaders Rhys Davies and James Kingston during the second round of the KLM Open at Hilversum in The Netherlands.
After completing level par opening rounds of 70 as the event tried to make up for time lost on Thursday first to vandalism on four greens and then to flooding, the two stablemates fared much better when they set off again.
Three birdies in four holes from the 12th took World Number Two Westwood, winner of the title in 1999, into a share of ninth place only two behind leaders Simon Khan, Kingston, Simon Dyson and Marcel Siem.
World Number Four McIlroy, meanwhile, was one stroke further back after he grabbed three birdies in four holes from the 11th.
Dyson and Siem were the overnight pacesetters, but as they waited to resume again Khan and Kingston posted first round scores of 66 and then picked up another shot when they ventured back out.
Englishman Khan is only 112th on The Race to Dubai, but does not have to worry about a return to the Qualifying School following his life-changing victory in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club last year.
Welshman Davies, Scot Gary Orr and England's Robert Dinwiddie were among those only one back.
Kingston went to six under on the short fifth, but Westwood remained only two behind by two-putting the long 18th for his fourth birdie and McIlroy was three under after he picked up another shot on the 17th.
With three to play Westwood and McIlroy were both up to five under and two behind Kingston and Davies, who led by one from Scot Orr.
