Bob MacIntyre discovered an extra gear as he opened up a commanding direct at the halfway point in Hamburg.
Despite making only 1 birdie MacIntyre took benefit of this afternoon weather that was more friendly and terminated a 63 after first-round leader Paul Casey struggled to a 73 in states in the Green Eagle Golf Club.
The Scot stormed to the peak of the leaderboard on 11-under level, four clear of Bernd Ritthammer, while Casey is off the pace as he continued to fight a challenging layout as well as a throat disease.
MacIntyre has had a rookie year in the European Tour, with a tie for sixth at The Open at Royal Portrush and back-to-back runner-up endings in May, and he is now in position to property his maiden victory on Tour.
The gifted left-hander’s scorecard featured some remarkable 11 threes – half them for birdie, and although he was not able to pick up shots in the long 15th or 16th, he struck on the final green in 2 and easily two-putted for his seventh birdie of the day.
“I just stuck to my game plan,” said the written 23-year-old. “It’s most likely the best I have driven a chunk – maybe this season. It’s not going straight, it is heading miles. I really don’t understand what I am doing but it’s working so I am just going to try and continue to perform it.
“I can only control what I can control and that’s swinging the golf club for each individual shot. That’s all I am going to do over the weekend too and I can continue to keep the good scores. Particularly when it’s my first time with such a lead it is going to be tough.
“I will get to learn from this experience, I am only doing the proper things about the program, doing the proper things off the program. I’m nice and relaxed and everything in home’s been brilliant so I am in the ideal mindset for going out there this weekend”
Ritthammer gave the home fans a lot to cheer late in the day after he birdied three of the final four holes to cap a blemish-free 66 which lifted him under and in 2nd place, with Casey along with Matthias Schwab and Guido Migliozzi around five under.
Casey started with a bogey and dropped further shots however he regrouped and clawed two shots back at 15 and 18 before bouncing back with a pleasant two at the fifth.
He missed a chance but he had been pleased with his fightback from a beginning although he was happy about the set up of the course.
“I am actually quite pleased with a single over as it’s such a difficult golf course,” Casey explained. “Attitude is the key, I had a great attitude and luckily there were options to produce birdies if you stay with it, however it’s very tricky.
“Not every course should be simple every week, but if it had been me I’d move up the temptations here since you’re earning a lot more interest into how this course is performed. Hazards would be more in play and I’d love to find men going to it. At this time it is very, very difficult, almost sort of defensive, which is not so enjoyable.”
Xander Schauffele, the highest-ranked participant in the field this week, made a spirited response to his opening 73 since he shot into red numbers with a four-birdie 69 that lifted the entire world No 9 to 2 under alongside Thomas Pieters, that discovered water in the last and ran a seven up to register to get a unsatisfactory 72.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed was two over four over for the tournament and staring in a cut, however, he dug deep to salvage a 72 that got him to the weekend to two-over level.
However, his American Matt Kuchar will probably be flying home early.

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