Des Smyth, enjoying a second flush of youth, is having a blast on the third day of the Murphy's Irish Open.
The veteran Irishman moved into a share of the lead on 10-under with the early clubhouse leader, England's Richard Bland, who equalled the course record.
Smyth started the day as leading Irishman on seven-under from the six qualifiers. Since then the 49-year-old birdied three of his opening four holes with the new putter clearly feeling very comfortable. He changed to an Odyssey 'Two-ball' broomhandle a month ago and combined with a change in his ball alignment last week he has found form again.
At the start of the week Smyth said he had no aspirations of winning but if he continues with this kind of assured play he has as good a chance as the next man.
Bland, 29, struggled to make headway on the Challenge Tour when he first came on the scene in 1996. There was no evidence of a struggle at Fota today as he matched the course record 63 with a flawless round. Moments ago South African Darren Fichardt took his share of the lead after shooting 64, as did Denmark's Soren Hansen who was on the back nine. The Dane picked up four birdies and an eagle through 11 holes.
The final pairing are under way and overnight leader, Australia's Peter O'Malley, immediately took himself out of the spotlight with bogeys at the first two holes to drop back to eight-under, the same as his playing partner Sweden's Carl Pettersson.
Earlier Philip Walton birdied the last and his one-under 70 lifted him to three-under overall. Eamonn Darcy reached the turn in one-under 35 to be six-under.
The big story of the morning was how Graeme McDowell, playing in the first match on his own, and Darren Clarke both shot 65's to play themselves back into the tournament on seven-under.