World number 670 Julien Guerrier established a commanding lead at the halfway stage of the Portugal Masters in Vilamoura.
Guerrier, who won twice on the Challenge Tour in 2017 but is seeking a first European Tour title, added a second round of 66 to his opening 62 at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course.
At 14 under par, the 35-year-old Frenchman ended the day five shots clear of American Sihwan Kim, whose erratic 66 included a back nine featuring six birdies and three bogeys.
Jonathan Caldwell is the best of the Irish despite only following up his first round 65 with a one over par 71 to sit at six under in a tie for 18th. Gavin Moynihan, who finished at level par after a second successive 71, and Cormac Sharvin, who followed an opening 70 with a 76 on Friday, both missed the cut.
“I’m feeling great,” said Guerrier, who played just five events in 2019 due to injury. “It looks easy but it’s not. After you shoot nine under it’s always tough to make a good score, so I’m really happy to play well.
“I just try to hit the fairways and hit the greens. I’m feeling good on the greens, so I think it’s easier when you are confident around the ball.
“After the injury you try to get a good level and find your mark on your game under pressure, so it’s perfect for me to play on the weekend.”
Overnight leader Liam Johnston could only add a 74 to his opening 61 to slip back to seven under par and a nine-way tie for third place.
Pre-tournament favourite Tommy Fleetwood is 11 shots off the pace after recovering from playing the first seven holes in three over par to return a 71 and remain three under.
“As much of a round of two halves as it was, my putting really stopped me from having a pretty decent round,” the world number 16 said before heading to the putting green.
“There is a score (out there). I don’t want to go out there and force it, just keep doing the things that I’ve been doing. The last two days the back nine has been so encouraging the way I’ve hit it, put that together for two nines and hole a few putts and there’s your score.
“I’ll just stick to what I’ve been doing because it’s given me a lot of good feelings.”
Collated second round scores & totals in the European Tour Portugal Masters, Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, Vilamoura, Portugal (British unless stated, par 71):
128 Julien Guerrier (Fra) 62 66
133 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 67 66
135 Marcus Armitage 68 67, Matthew Jordan 66 69, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 69 66, Martin Simonsen (Den) 68 67, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 67 68, Liam Johnston 61 74, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 68 67, Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 70 65, Scott Vincent (Zim) 70 65
136 Laurie Canter 64 72, Paul Waring 67 69, Jamie Donaldson 69 67, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 67 69, George Coetzee (Rsa) 66 70, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 67 69
137 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 69 68, Richard Bland 67 70, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 66 71, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 67 70, Johannes Veerman (USA) 69 68, Jonathan Caldwell 65 72 (NIrl), Francesco Laporta (Ita) 67 70, Tom Gandy (IOM) 69 68
138 Steven Brown 68 70, Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 67 71, David Drysdale 70 68, Tomas Guimaraes Bessa (Por) 68 70, Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Spa) 70 68, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 67 71, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 69 69, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 67 71
139 Tommy Fleetwood 68 71, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 70 69, Garrick Porteous 70 69, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 68 71, Grant Forrest 72 67, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 72 67
140 Ben Evans 69 71, David Law 69 71, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 70 70, Rhys Enoch 69 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 69 71, Wil Besseling (Ned) 70 70, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 70 70, Julian Suri (USA) 69 71, Bryce Easton (Rsa) 68 72, Jack Senior 69 71, Toby Tree 73 67, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 71 69, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 73 67, Dave Coupland 72 68, Jordan Smith 73 67, Ricardo Santos (Por) 69 71
141 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 69 72, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 72 69, Matthew Southgate 69 72, Emilio Cuartero Blanco (Spa) 70 71, Lars Van Meijel (Ned) 71 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 73 68, Ben Stow 72 69, Max Schmitt (Ger) 70 71, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 66 75, Stephen Gallacher 76 65, Dale Whitnell 67 74, Andres Romero (Arg) 71 70, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 70 71, John Catlin (USA) 72 69, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 69 72
The following players missed the cut:
142 Zach Murray (Aus) 72 70, Anton Karlsson (Swe) 72 70, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 73 69, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 72 70, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 73, Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 71 71, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 69 73, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 74 68, Robert Rock 70 72, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 71 71
143 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 74 69, Jens Fahrbring (Swe) 71 72, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe) 70 73, Joost Luiten (Ned) 71 72, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 73 70, Richard McEvoy 72 71, Vitor Lopes (a) (Por) 71 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 73, Robin Roussel (Fra) 70 73, Jake McLeod (Aus) 72 71, Darius Van Driel (Ned) 77 66, Calum Hill 73 70
144 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 73 71, Daan Huizing (Ned) 73 71, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 74 70, Chris Paisley 75 69
145 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 72 73, Nicolai Von Dellingshausen (Ger) 73 72, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 74, Eduardo De La Riva (Spa) 74 71
146 Cormac Sharvin (NIrl) 70 76, Will Enefer 74 72, Ross Fisher 77 69, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 69 77, Damien Perrier (Fra) 77 69, Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 73 73, Oliver Fisher 71 75, Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 75, Ewan Ferguson 73 73
147 Joel Stalter (Fra) 74 73, Matthew Baldwin 74 73, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 74 73
148 Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 72 76, Mathieu Fenasse (Fra) 77 71, Jonathan Thomson 74 74, Tomas Santos Silva (Por) 70 78, Haotong Li (Chn) 74 74, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 74 74, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 74 74, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 72 76
149 Peter Hanson (Swe) 74 75, Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 73 76, David Howell 71 78, Pedro Lencart Silva (Por) 72 77, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 75 74, Justin Walters (Rsa) 73 76, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 77 72
150 Oliver Wilson 76 74
151 Benjamin Poke (Den) 74 77
155 Steve Webster 78 77
156 Miguel Gaspar (Por) 82 74
