Sweden's Oscar Floren carried on where he left off as The Irish Open resumed in windy conditions at Carton House.
Floren carded a flawless six under par 66 late on Thursday to claim a one shot overnight lead ahead of former champion Shane Lowry, Michael Hoey, Joost Luiten, Peter Uihlein and France's Jean-Baptiste Gonnet.
And the 29 year old, who has a best finish of 25th on The European Tour this season, was quickly back among the birdies in the second round, picking up shots
on
the first and fourth to improve to eight under par.
That increased his lead to two shots over Madeira Islands Open winner Uihlein, who had started on the other side of the course and birdied the tenth, with former Ryder Cup Captain Jose Maria Olazábal a shot further back after two birdies and one bogey in his opening five holes.
Hoey, whose opening 67 had come exactly a week after his wife Bev had given birth to their first child, had bogeyed the 11th to drop back to four under.
Graeme McDowell, who said earlier this week that winning The Irish Open was on his golfing "bucket list", was seven shots off the pace after an opening 71 and one birdie and one bogey in his opening four holes this morning.
And World Number Two Rory McIlroy was even further down the
leaderboard
after the two-time Major winner started with a first round of 74 that left him fighting to make the cut this afternoon.
Floren'sfirst bogeys of the week on the fifth and sixth dropped him back to six under par and allowed Uihlein to move into the lead with birdies at the 13th and 15th.
At eight under par he led by one from Olazábal, who had birdied the 17th and 18th to reach the turn in 33, and OpendeEspaña winner Raphaël Jacquelin, who had rolled in a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th.
While most of the spectators were watching McDowell, Padraig Harrington and defending champion Jamie Donaldson, Jacquelin's group was certainly the best place to be.
The Frenchman, who needed a record-equalling nine-holeplay-offto win at El Saler in April, remained seven under after eight holes and playing partners Rafael Cabrera-Bello and Robert Rock were now just one shot behind on an increasingly crowdedleadearbord.
Cabrera-Bello had birdied the 13th, 14th and 15th and Rock picked up shots on the tenth, 13th and 14th, while Graeme Storm had joined the grouponsix under with a front nine of 33.
McDowell remained one under with seven to play and Donaldson was five under after three birdies in four holes before the turn, but Harrington bogeyed the first after a poor chip fromrightof the green to drop to one over.
