Brandon Stone carded a second-round 71 to sit in the chasing pack at the Oman Open where Stephen Gallacher and Rasmus Hojgaard lead the way.
The South African played the front nine in 38 after his early birdie was offset by three bogeys.
Crucially for his championship ambitions, he got stuck in after the turn and produced a stunning scoring run. A birdie at the 10th was followed up by an eagle three on the 12th and then a birdie at the next to cement his place on the leaderboard.
A bogey at the 15th did take a little gloss off the day but with scoring difficult, he did enough to share fifth.
Big-hitting Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and Finn Kalle Samooja sit one adrift of the leaders.
Zander Lombard, George Coetzee and Louis De Jager all start the final 36 holes six back. Another SA trio – Justin Walters, Dean Burmester and Shaun Norris – are eight back heading into Saturday.
