The European Tour’s youngest winner surged into contention for a first win in three years in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
Italy's Matteo Manassero claimed the Castello Masters in 2010 aged just 17 years and 188 days and added further titles in each of the next three seasons.
The last of those came in the BMW PGA Championship in 2013 and helped Manassero reach a career-high of 25th in the Official World Golf Ranking, but the 23 year old arrived in Scotland 596th after just two top-ten finishes since the start of 2014.
A change of technique in pursuit of more length off the tee was initially to blame but Manassero admitted it then became a mental battle to rediscover the kind of form he showed on Friday with a 67 to lie two shots behind halfway leader Alex Noren.
"It has been really hard with a lot of ups and downs, mainly downs," said Manassero, who was just 16 in becoming the youngest winner of the Amateur Championship in 2009 and finished 13th in the Open at Turnberry a month later.
"I was feeling bad on the golf course. Every time I had an important or difficult shot I was missing it because of the (mental) approach. It's something that starts with little things and when you have never really played badly before, it's hard and you keep going down."
Manassero missed 16 cuts in succession from last year's Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, but finishing 12th in Sweden and 13th in Germany recently confirmed he was back on the right track.
Matteo Manassero.
"I found in myself a way to get out of it,"
"It was a slow process, it was not something that clicked and that's probably a good thing because I know why I am playing better and feel better.
"I got a lot of help, people not always cuddling me but telling me off for certain things. You only want cuddles when you don't feel good but it's the only thing you don't need probably.
"It's exciting, of course, being up on the leaderboard and when it's by playing well and not just by scrambling well or by some sort of escape, it's even more exciting and I'm happy."
Manassero shared fourth place with Branden Grace, Richard Bland and Jorge Campillo, with Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell a shot further back.
Pepperell had missed the cut in three of his last four events but has started to feel the benefit of working with a new US-based coach he has never met in person.
"It's a guy called Dave Wedzik who I went with because he works with Bradley Dredge and I was so impressed with how well he hit the ball off the tee when we played together this year," Pepperell, 25, said. "Driving has been my Achilles heel and if you can drive it well golf is so much easier.”
