England’s Lee Westwood broke the course record at Aloha Golf Club with a sizzling 64 to charge to within two strokes of the halfway lead held by South African Louis Oosthuizen in the Valle Romano Open de Andalucia.
Westwood, The 2000 European Tour Order of Merit winner, who claimed the last of his 16 Tour titles in 2003, changed his putter and his putting style, resulting in a change of fortune on the greens.
His eight under par card left him poised to challenge on 136, sharing fifth place and two behind Oosthuizen, who fired a second successive 67 for 134, ten under par.
Francois Delamontagne of France, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain and first round pace-setter, Matthew Zions of Australia are all tied for second, one behind Oosthuizen after rounds of 66, 68 and 70 respectively.
Oosthuizen, playing with former US Open Champipm. Steve Jones, covered the back nine in 32 blows to edge into the lead, while Jones matched his 67 to be tied with Westwood on eight under par.
The South African commented: “It was great fun playing with Steve. We definitely fed off each other. I was annoyed with a bogey at the sixth, where Steve made an eagle three – but I came straight back with a birdie, which was pleasing, and the back nine treated me well.”
Jones returned the compliment by saying: "You can feed off each other and it was nice to see him really bombing it. He's going to be the one to catch the way he is playing."
Zions had equalled the Aloha course record of 65 on Thursday but it fell by virtue of Westwood's scintillating eight birdie haul. Before the event, the English Ryder Cup player had despaired over a dreadful start to the season with his putter and a first-round 72 at Aloha gave no hint that his frustrating run was about to end.
However, after switching back from a belly-putter to a normal size model and putting with his left hand below his right Westwood at last found himself comfortable on the greens. He said: "I didn't actually hole a lot of long putts but I certainly felt a lot more comfortable on the greens today.
"I'd brought out five putters in anticipation because of the way things have been going. This one I used for the Masters first round and vowed I'd never use it again but it's suited the greens here. I putted cack-handed and I've not done that for a long, long time."
The 2000 European Number One is now eyeing his first win since the 2003 Dunhill Links Championship, which was his 16th Tour title.
Co-leader Zions woke up with a sore throat and found himself shivering so badly at the start of his round that he worried it might affect his putting.
The Denver-based Australian drank a bottle of water per hole to try to ward of the onset of a chill and pluckily birdied the last to stay at the top of the leaderboard.
Fernandez-Castano, who had faded with two late bogeys the previous day, said a long night's sleep had refreshed him enough for the tournament co-promoter to now think about successive victories after last week's Telecom Italia Open win.
Fernandez-Castano added a 68 to his opening 67 to finish one ahead of Westwood on nine under, remaining on course for back-to-back victories following his Italian Open victory on Sunday.
Along with fellow Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiménez, Fernandez-Castano is also employing his talents as an event promoter for the first time, but admitted that the exertions of his Italian win had left him exhausted.
"I had a good night's sleep and felt much fresher this morning," said the 26 year old, who learned to play on the par-three course adjacent to the tournament course.
"If you told me on Monday I would be nine under after two rounds I wouldn't have believed you so I can't complain. I feel more pressure from playing at home and I want to take care of little things because I would like everything to be fantastic.
"It's amazing, you don't realise how much work people do behind the scenes and now you appreciate everything that goes on at the Tour every week.
"I know everyone in the clubhouse and have great memories of playing here so it's great to be playing a tour event at Aloha."
