Marcus Armitage maintained his two-stroke lead at 10 under par as Jeff Winther charged into contention at the 2025 FedEx Open de France.
Armitage and Min Woo Lee both carded 68 for the second round at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, with the Australian joined in second place on eight under as Winther's 63 saw him reach that mark in Friday's round alone.
In-form Frenchman Adrien Saddier was another player to make a significant move with a bogey-free 66 to lift him into a tie for fourth on six under.
Armitage started from the tenth and immediately added a birdie to his first-round 64 thanks to a stunning approach.
Another at the 14th saw him to nine under for the week and he found his way back there after a topsy-turvy start to his inward nine.
A 25-foot putt at the first and a superb approach to the third both yielded birdies to offset dropped shots at the second and fourth.
Another gain at the sixth took him 10 under for the third time and the Englishman parred his way home from there.
He said: "It was a little bit of a battle today. For some reason my irons were just going miles. That bit of gym work I’ve started doing this week, it’s paying off already!
"All in all, kept my nose in front, and hopefully we can keep going over the weekend. I ground it out, and that’s what golf’s about.
"Everyone’s great on the good days, it’s the bad days like that, if you can still shoot a score and keep yourself in it, then you just wait for the good days over the weekend."
Winther began his round from the tenth with three consecutive birdies capped by a 12-foot putt at the 12th.
Another followed at the 16th and he holed from the fringe at the first to move to five under.
A 17-footer at the fourth and successive birdies at the sixth and seventh brought the course record of 62 into Winther's sights and though a bogey at the eighth put paid to those ambitions, Winther finished with a ninth birdie of the day.
"It was a great day today," he said. "Made a lot of putts. Played well, yeah.
"I got in a lot of good positions off the tee, which makes it crucial to go for the pins because they are tucked away here and there. I think you need to hit fairways here otherwise you're struggling."
Lee, who responded to an opening bogey with four birdies including a stunning long putt at the 13th, said: "It was just solid golf, which was nice. When I had to hit some shots, I could, but I didn’t hit anything spectacular. That’s the reason why I didn’t go too low."
Saddier, coming off a runner-up finish at last week's BMW PGA Championship and another top-five at the previous week's Amgen Irish Open, carded five birdies to sit alongside compatriot Jeong weon Ko, Swedes Jens Dantorp and Mikael Lindberg and Italy's Gregorio De Leo.
The home favourite, who started from the tenth said: "I got a really lucky bounce on 14 and chip-in on 15, it was nice to get some luck, and I played solid on (my) back nine and finished with two birdies to make a charge, so pretty good."
Dantorp said: "This course is a bit sneaky in that way that you don't always have to go for the flags. They look like you have to go for them because it's not that long a golf course or you stand there with wedges, but you can pretty easily put yourself in some bad spots - so staying a bit patient and playing away from the pins a little bit sometimes."
Five-time Major Champion Brooks Koepka was in the group on five under, with Alexander Levy and Ugo Coussaud adding to a strong French challenge on four under. Defending champion Dan Bradbury made the cut right on the line at level par.
