Daniel Hillier carded an excellent bogey-free 67 on a tough day of scoring to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the BMW International Open.
It was a wild and windy day two at Golfclub München Eichenried and Hillier took advantage of the slightly easier early conditions to get to nine under and lead the way ahead of Danish invite Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
Dutchman Joost Luiten was then at seven under after making the 26th hole-in-one of the season en route to a 66 - the lowest round of the day.
Kiwi Hillier has a win on the European Challenge Tour in each of the last two seasons, the most recent at the 2022 Swiss Challenge helping him earn his DP World Tour status as he finished seventh on the Road to Mallorca.
He has made just three of his last nine cuts but one of those brought his best finish of the season so far - a tie for sixth at the KLM Open - and he currently sits 110th on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex.
The 24-year-old achieved his best career DP World Tour finish of third when holding the 36-hole lead at the 2021 ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by Modest! Golf Management and is looking to keep his cool in contention again.
"I need to stay patient coming down the stretch," he said. "I was pretty good at KLM, maybe one or two birdies more and I think I bogeyed 16 or 15 and that kind of took me out of it, unfortunately.
“If I'm in that situation again, just make sure I stick to my gameplan, don't try and think too much. And if the results come my way, then I'm really pleased.
"Pretty tough conditions out there. Breeze is definitely up and making it tricky. Pretty swirling winds as well.
"I played really solid front nine. There were a couple of lucky ones coming in and managed to go round bogey-free which was pretty good.
“I think it helps when you come from Wellington, playing in the wind all your life. Then you have to navigate your way around it."
Hillier completed the final three holes of his first round in level par on Friday morning after Thursday's storms and put a beautiful approach to two feet on the 15th and then took advantage of the par-five 18th to turn in 67 on day two.
A run of five pars made it look unlikely he would challenge early leader Neergaard-Petersen but he got up and down on the par-five sixth, chipped in at the seventh and holed a 33-footer on the eighth to leap to the top of the leaderboard.
Dane Neergaard-Petersen is playing his first DP World Tour event after only finishing his collegiate career last month but he looked right at home in Munich.
Following up an opening 69, he birdied the fourth and while he gave the shot back on the sixth, a hat-trick of gains saw him turn in 33 and share the lead.
Further birdies at the 11th and 15th moved him ahead and he kept the lead as he bounced back from a bogey on the 16th with a gain on the last, before later being overtaken by Hillier.
Luiten holed a six iron from 203 yards on the eighth for his perfect shot to go with six birdies and two bogeys.
Home favourites Marc Hammer and Marcel Schneider, Frenchman Adrien Saddier, South African Jayden Schaper and Finn Sami Välimäki were three shots off the lead.
