Paul McGinley took a big step today towards turning around a slide that has taken him from 18th in the world to outside the top 150.

A second successive 69 in the French Open at Le Golf National near Paris lifted the Ryder Cup star onto the heels of early clubhouse leader Simon Khan as the windy conditions continued to test the players.

Khan added a superb 67 to his opening 70 to set the pace at five under, while McGinley tucked in just one behind.

Earlier it had been Khan's fellow Englishman Graeme Storm out in front, but having fought his way to seven under the former British amateur champion, who has had 33 top-10 finishes on the European Tour without a win, bogeyed the 12th, 13th and 17th and then went into the lake for a closing double-bogey six.

Dane Thomas Bjorn also topped the leaderboard for a while, but he finished with a double-bogey seven on the ninth to drop back to three under, one better than Storm.

As for overnight leaders James Kamte and Kyron Sullivan, they had their problems too.

Kamte, the little-known South African who came through qualifying, followed his 66 with a 78, but Welshman Sullivan, in his first full season on the circuit, came back from three successive bogeys around the turn to be tied with McGinley in third place with three to play.

Khan shared first place with Christian Nilsson, but the Swede had not even teed off again and he looked likely to be challenged by rain as well as wind.

McGinley has had only one top-10 finish in almost a year, though he did, of course, help Europe to a third successive Ryder Cup victory in that time.

"My game is about consistency, but pro golf is not about that - it's about the big weeks and I haven't had any yet this season," said the Dubliner.

"My stroke average is right up there, but on the Order of Merit I'm 120th. It's kind of weird - my game has not been horrendous, but the results have."

Khan, former winner of the Wales Open, has yet to get really going this year as well. Two seventh places have been his best, but he has had only one bogey in the last two days.

"I changed to a putter my two-year-old has been crashing against the radiator at home," he commented.

"I played with Nick Dougherty in the US Open qualifier at Walton Heath and while I felt I was matching him tee to green I was holing nothing."

Dougherty won the event and went on to be seventh at Oakmont, while Khan had to be content with watching on television.