Greg Norman wanted to keep his expectations "realistically low" in the second round of The Open Championship - but that was getting harder and harder after he took the clubhouse lead on level par at Royal Birkdale on Friday.
Norman, winner of this event in 1986 and 1993, carded an opening 70 to lie just one shot off the overnight lead shared by Graeme McDowell, Rocco Mediate and Robert Allenby.
But the 53 year old, who credits marrying former Wimbledon champion Chris Evert at the end of last month for "revitalising" his life, soon found himself as the pacesetter after going round in 70 for the second day running.
Norman rolled in a long birdie putt on the first and parred the next four holes before falling victim to the treacherous sixth hole, a par four measuring 499 yards which is ranked the toughest on the course.
The former world number one found heavy rough with his first two shots and was still 60 yards short of the flag in three on his way to a double bogey, but then birdied the next two holes from 25 and 20 feet respectively to get back to one under.
A string of pars then kept Norman in red figures with just three holes to play, but he dropped a shot on the 17th before parring the last to finish level.
Almost surprising as Norman’s place on the leaderboard is that of Camilo Villegas.
The 26 year old Colombian, playing the event for the first time, was seemingly out of the running after shooting an opening 76 that included no birdies.
However, despite picking up bogeys on the first, second and 13th holes of his second round, he shot a stunning 65 that included a run of five straight birdies from the 14th.
He said: “I putted 100 times better today. It was really fun.
“If you told me I would shoot that round this morning I would not believe you. We will see what happens here on in.”
Elsewhere, Rocco Mediate recovered from dropping four shots in seven holes from the 11th with a birdie on the 18th to give him a 73 and a two over par clubhouse score of 142. He is joined by Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, who won The Barclays Scottish Open last week.
"It was just as windy as yesterday and we had a short deluge on the sixth hole but the golf course is perfect and everyone is playing the same," said Mediate, who lost out on the US Open last month in a play-off to Tiger Woods.
He added: “I didn't make quite enough birdie putts but I was saying to my caddie that these have been the two hardest days.
"I don't hit it that long so I'm hitting a lot of long shots into the greens and sometimes the greens don't like it. But it's the Open and I love it."
Retief Goosen and Mike Weir are tied for second on one over par, but have not yet begun their second rounds.
