Richard Mansell fired a remarkable 68 in extremely testing conditions at the Old Course, St Andrews to lead the 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship by two shots at the halfway stage.
Having opened his second round at the sixth hole due to the shotgun start at all three host courses on Friday morning, Mansell made four early birdies to climb to the top of the leaderboard.
But as the weather got worse on the Scottish coast, the battle to avoid losing ground became the priority and the Englishman had to make do with a bogey and nine pars in his next ten holes.
He finished with a flourish, though, birdieing the fifth from six feet despite being buffeted by the wind, to head into the weekend on ten under par.
Swede Alex Noren was Mansell's nearest challenger on eight under after carding five birdies and two bogeys at Kingsbarns Golf Links.
Dane Niklas Nørgaard Møller and Frenchman Antoine Rozner were in joint-third after their 74s at St Andrews and Carnoustie respectively.
Home favourite Robert MacIntyre was another shot back on six under thanks to his 70 at Kingsbarns.
Mansell picked up his first birdie of the day from ten feet at the seventh - his second hole - before making back-to-back gains on the ninth and tenth to jump to nine under.
He missed the fairway at the 12th but managed to walk away from that hole with a birdie thanks to a wonderful 21-foot putt.
A series of par saves followed before he dropped his only shot of the day at the 16th as he was unable to convert a long-range par putt.
As others began to slip backwards in savage conditions, Mansell produced some incredible saves to stay at nine under over the next few holes.
Mansell celebrated with a fist pump as his seven-foot par putt found the cup at the fourth to keep him out in front, and he birdied the fifth to double his advantage.
The stunning 68 was the lowest round of the day across all three courses, and when asked if it was the best round of his life due to the conditions, Mansell said: "It's up there.
"I can't feel anything in my body right now. It was just gritty. I think I made one bogey on the 16th which was obviously into the (wind and rain).
"You get those few holes into the wind and the rain, and it was just trying to make contact to be honest and just try to keep it out of the bunkers and just get up and down.
"I'm obviously really, really happy with that today.
"It was just a real big personality thing, and just try and stay positive and stay focused.
"The caddie did a great job of trying to keep as much dry as we could - the last seven, eight holes, it was no chance. It was just holding on to the golf club and trying to warm up your hands when you could.
"Like I say, it was just keep it out of trouble, try to keep it out of the gorse bushes and get up and down and we did that really well."
Johannes Veerman & Will Ahmed and Christiaan Burke & Bruce Mitchell co-lead the team event on 19 under par.
Eddie Pepperell had a day to remember, making a magnificent hole-in-one at Kingsbarns' eighth hole.
