Andrew Coltart's putting stroke, polished in his back garden, helped him card a four-under-par 68 and a take a share of the Great North Open second round lead with Welshman Bradley Dredge.
Scot Coltart holed two 50-footers and a 20-footer after working hard recently on his garden mini-putting course to improve his action.
But European number one Lee Westwood could not recover from his opening 81 once he had double bogeyed the third and missed the cut after a 74.
In contrast, Australian left hander Richard Green shot a course record 64 to move into a share of sixth place, three shots off the lead. Eight birdies swept Green up the leaderboard. Dredge fired a 67 but surrendered the lead at the last where he had a bogey to Coltart's birdie.
The top pair moved to eight-under-par 136, just a shot ahead of exciting young English rookie Paul Casey, who carded a 66, the best round of the morning.
Overnight leader Daren Lee of Britain, fell away with a 74 to lie four strokes off the lead. Coltart began the year handily placed for an automatic top 10 spot in Europe's Ryder Cup table but a poor run, affected by a streak of indifferent putting, has dropped him back to only 17th spot.
"I had my stroke videoed in Dubai earlier in the year and it was shocking," said Coltart. "I tried out a putting track, but what has really helped me is a five-hole putting green I've built in my back garden.
"It gives you a good idea your stroke is working well when you start to see the ball going in regularly and you get a good feeling about your putting.