Padraig Harrington, one of only two home winners of the Irish Open since 1982, has given himself the chance to do it again.
Without a European Tour win since the last of his three majors in 2008, but eighth in The Masters and fourth in the US Open two weeks ago, Harrington lies joint third on 10 under par after two 67s at Royal Portrush.
While local heroes Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell
are all still around for the weekend - for Open champion Clarke it was a first cut made all year - they would all pay a lot for Harrington's position.
The 40-year-old Dubliner, who trails France's Gregory Bourdy by two, is not exactly oozing confidence yet, however.
"I'm playing a game I'm not familiar with," he said. "I'm hitting far more fairways and greens than normal and I know I could play better if I trusted it a bit more.
"I've shortened my swing significantly and I didn't really put myself in any trouble. It was as stress-free a 67 as you could get in these conditions."
Bourdy and second-placed Mark Foster also shot 67, while Foster's fellow Englishman Paul Waring - playing his first event for over a year following wrist surgery - had a 65 to join Harrington and Italian Lorenzo Gagli (66).
Harrington won the tournament five years ago, won his first major at Carnoustie two months later and the following season added two more.
He would love the same to happen and he does not rule it out.
"I know they are around the corner and they tend to come like buses. When you get one a few more arrive very quickly."
In the first Irish Open north of the border since 1953 McIlroy and McDowell both stand five under, with Clarke one further back. Both need something special just to have a shot at the title.
Bourdy is a stablemate of Clarke and that proved useful on Tuesday when he joined him for a practice round.
"I saw him on a tee and asked if it was possible to share a game," said the 30-year-old from Bordeaux. "He is with the same manager, so I think that helped to get the right answer.
"Darren has been great with me. He gave me a lot of advice and maybe that gave me some confidence for the week."
He needed some. Bourdy has not had a top-10 finish all season and is down at 112th on the Tour money list and 175th in the world - 100 places exactly below what he was 12 months ago.
Asked what was the best advice Clarke offered he replied: "I'm going to keep this for me!
"It was good for the lines on the tee shots. After just two or three times you can see better to know exactly the way you have to play."
Joint overnight leader with Indian Jeev Milkha Singh, Bourdy eagled the long second and at six under for the first 10 holes was three clear of the field.
Bogeys did follow on the 11th and 14th, the two par threes on the back nine, but he holed from 20 feet for birdie at the long 17th.
Clarke, of course, was not about to celebrate surviving a cut because that is not what he is about, but he knew it was important.
It is under three weeks to the start of his Open title defence and Royal Lytham and the 43-year-old stated: "I'm just not tournament sharp and it's important to have more competitive rounds."
He has taken a month off to rest a groin strain and coming as it did after a nightmare run he said: "The break was massive.
"I needed to get away and the injury was a bit of a blessing in disguise.
"My golf's not been that bad, but my scoring's been terrible.
"I've been travelling all round the world trying to fulfil my role as Open champion, but now I'm refreshed."
While Clarke is also playing next week's French Open McIlroy is in
his last event for The Open and, having missed the cut on four of his last five starts, Portrush took on real meaning for him too.
He is still not yet back to his sparkling best, but said: "The last two days have probably been the best two ball-striking rounds I've had in a while.
"I'm definitely close. I need something around 65 or 64 to get into contention, but I've shot low scores here before."
A record 61 indeed - at the age of 16.
Collated second round scores and totals, Portrush GC, Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
132 Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 65 67
133 Mark Foster 66 67
134 Paul Waring 69 65, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 68 66, Padraig Harrington 67 67
135 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 69 66, Jamie Donaldson 68 67
136 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 65 71, Gary Orr 68 68
137 Richard Bland 68 69, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 67, Peter Whiteford 67 70, Andrew Marshall 66 71, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 70, Matthew Zions (Aus) 66 71, Michael Hoey 70 67
138 Anthony Wall 67 71, Alex Haindl (Rsa) 68 70, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 66 72, Steven O'Hara 69 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 71 67, James Morrison 68 70, Oscar Floren (Swe) 66 72
139 Richie Ramsay 69 70, Ross Fisher 68 71, Graeme McDowell 71 68, Matthew Baldwin 70 69, Edouard Dubois (Fra) 66 73, Simon Dyson 67 72, Lee Slattery 70 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 67 72, Rory McIlroy 70 69, Romain Wattel (Fra) 69 70, Marc Warren 71 68, Sam Little 71 68, Paul McGinley 69 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 70 69, Bradley Dredge 68 71
140 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 71, George Murray 72 68, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 69 71, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 70 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 71, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 71 69, Darren Clarke 71 69, Johan Edfors (Swe) 72 68, David Drysdale 70 70, Mark O'sullivan 68 72, Shane Lowry 72 68, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 69 71, Simon Thornton 70 70
141 Craig Lee 73 68, Joost Luiten (Ned) 72 69, Ricardo Santos (Por) 69 72, Phillip Price 71 70, John Daly (USA) 70 71, Stephen Gallacher 72 69, Paul Lawrie 69 72, Rich Beem (USA) 69 72, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 68 73
142 Damien McGrane 71 71, David Howell 71 71, Simon Khan 72 70, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 68 74, Mark Murphy 69 73, Gary Boyd 71 71, Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 70 72, Robert Rock 71 71, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 72 70, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 69 73
The following players failed to make the cut:
143 Andrew Johnston 69 74, Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 70 73, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 72 71, Kenneth Ferrie 70 73, Graeme Storm 69 74, Daniel Denison 71 72, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 67 76, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 72, Jamie Moul 70 73, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 72 71, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 74 69, David Horsey 71 72, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 72 71, David Lynn 69 74, Dermot Mcelroy 71 72, Brett Rumford (Aus) 72 71, Chris Devlin 72 71, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 68 75
144 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 68 76, Steve Webster 69 75, Matthew Nixon 71 73, Robert Coles 70 74, Richard McEvoy 72 72, Keegan Bradley (USA) 73 71, Paul Cutler 70 74, Jordi Garcia (Spa) 72 72, Richard Finch 72 72, Keith Horne (Rsa) 67 77, Reinier Saxton (Ned) 72 72
145 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 78, Branden Grace (Rsa) 75 70, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 75 70, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 75, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 74, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 74, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 72 73, David Higgins 75 70, Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 75
146 Colin Montgomerie 76 70, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 74, Matthew Southgate 74 72, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 71 75, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 69 77, Thomas Norret (Den) 68 78, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 72 74, Tim Sluiter (Ned) 76 70, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 71 75
147 Chris Wood 78 69, James Kingston (Rsa) 72 75, Rhys Davies 75 72, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 71 76, Danny Willett 73 74, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 77, Andy Sullivan 73 74, Tommy Fleetwood 73 74, Richard Green (Aus) 73 74
148 Tjaart Van Der Walt (Rsa) 74 74, Barrie Trainor 77 71, Peter Lawrie 73 75, Oliver Fisher 74 74
149 Alan Dunbar 71 78, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 75 74, Jamie Elson 72 77, Michael Collins 72 77, Niall Kearney 76 73, Warren Abery (Rsa) 67 82
150 David Dixon 74 76, Federico Colombo (Ita) 73 77, Gareth Maybin 75 75
151 Harry Diamond 77 74, Pablo Martin (Spa) 74 77, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 78 73, Mark Staunton 76 75
152 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 73 79, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 73 79
153 George Coetzee (Rsa) 78 75
154 Damian Mooney 77 77, Knut Borsheim (Nor) 76 78, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 78 76, Patrick Mccrudden 80 74, Scott Jamieson 77 77
155 John G Kelly 82 73
156 Daniel Miernicki (USA) 77 79, Eamonn Brady 80 76
158 Sam Hutsby 83 75
