Callum Hill slipped up on the home stretch to slip off the top of the leader board at the Austrian Alpine Open at Kitzbuhel, but he is still in contention.
The Kirkcaldy-born, former Merchiston Castle schoolboy, who developed his game in the American college circuit, is one shot behind Andrew Johnston.
The Englishman fired his lowest round on the DP World Tour in almost seven years to take a narrow lead into the weekend.
Johnston posted an eight-under-par second round of 62 – his lowest score since the Scottish Open in 2019 – to move to 11-under at Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith, one ahead of Hill, Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello and Kota Kaneko of Japan.
The golfer, affectionately known as Beef, is making his tenth start on the DP World Tour this season on a medical exemption, after being limited to just 17 appearances across the last three years.
Last year, it was revealed Johnston had a complete ligament tear and a partial tear in two other tendons in his thumb after a series of earlier misdiagnoses.
The 37-year-old is now looking to pick up his first DP World Tour title for over a decade, with his maiden victory coming at the 2016 Real Club Valderrama Open de España.
Johnston birdied the 12th before a hat-trick of gains from the 15th saw him reach seven under for his opening nine holes on Friday.
At that stage, he was still a shot adrift of first-round leader Yanhan Zhou, but birdies at the first and second, before further gains on the sixth and ninth, saw him set the clubhouse target.
Hill overtook Johnston with a brilliant front nine of 29, but the Scot was unable to maintain his electric start, with dropped shots at two of his final three holes on the tougher back nine saw him fall into a tie for second at ten-under.
Andrew Johnston said: “Look, it’s hard to describe. Just hit a lot of good shots. The putter got a bit hot, which I’ve been trying to do now for six months. Yeah, you know, putts start dropping. It’s a good day.
“I think with the injury I looked at stuff that I could personally sort of be better and I started going back into the gym and I felt really compressed and body everywhere and there’s a nice little coffee shop in Perth next door and there’s a yoga place next door and I was like, do you know what, I’m just going to wander in and have a look in, ask a few questions and I found this yoga teacher and she has been brilliant.
“I just think my body’s been a lot more flexible, day-to-day I’m feeling better, just day-to-day and moving it and when I come back, I hadn’t seen Goughy (Jamie Gough) for a year. He just said ‘you’re moving so much better and the club’s in such a better position’ and I think it’s a big part to do with that.
“We’re getting there, but you should see the yardage book and stuff. There’s like four or five numbers every time because obviously you’ve got the normal number, then adjustments, front pin and any cover.
“There’s still a lot going on and you still sort of have to take that extra ten, 15 seconds just to double check and make sure we’ve got the right yardage because it’s one of these mountain courses that are fiddly, and if you start getting the wrong yardages and flying greens, you can rack up some scores.
Hill now 31 who was a standout pupil at Merchiston Academy’s golf academy before earning a golf scholarship to Western New Mexico Univeristy in American, admitted: “I started really well today and I feel like the score on this course is the front nine and then the back nine provides a much trickier test, especially the finishing stretch.
“The finishing stretch is strong, the last kind of four holes are really strong. The tee shots aren’t as easy on the back nine to hit the fairway.
“You have to kind of go over some trees, work around a couple of tree lines, so it makes it difficult to hit the fairways and playing out of position is difficult around here. It’s a tougher set up today and I played really nice.
“I just lost a couple of shots coming in there and didn’t get myself as close to chances on the back nine. But still, five under is a good day.
“The wind had been north all day up until the closing stretch and the predictability of that makes it much easier. When it starts switching like that, a shot like the 18th becomes very tricky just because the water is so in play at the front of the green, especially to those front flags.
“Of course, you have the bailout where you can just try and hit it in the middle to the long side of the green, but then the chip back down the hill is not easy because the rough is so thick. It’d be an easy four. It’d be nice to have a couple of strokes in the back pocket going down to that last hole.”
