Colin Montgomerie's determined round of one-under-par 70 saw him sandwich three birdies inbetween two bogeys to cling on to his British Open lead.
A see-saw round with several important saves, which bore many of the hallmarks of his opening 65, took him to seven-under-par 135.
That reduced his overnight three-shot lead to just a stroke from the third of three Swedish challengers during the day, Pierre Fulke.
The long-time European Ryder Cup table leader who has been in a slump since finishing second in the Accenture World Golf ChampionshipMatchplay, powered back to form by picking up four strokes and had a chance of catching Montgomerie with two holes still to play.
Montgomerie again used his irons and putter to good effect to reduce the damage to an erratic round but he could not prevent bogeys at thethird and 15th holes.
He was able to stay on top by virtue of a 10ft birdie putt on the long sixth, a subtle pitch to just two inches from a bunker on the long 11th and astunning approach to four feet on the par-four 13th.
A missed putt of eight feet on the last, though, cost Montgomerie a larger lead.
Jesper Parnevik of Sweden, American Joe Ogilvie and Britain's Greg Owen lie two behind Montgomerie, with another Swede, British Open debutantNiclas Fasth, three off the pace.
Four back lie Irish veteran Des Smyth who shot a stunning 65 and Darren Clarke who briefly got to 5 under before dropping back.Padraig Harrington recovered well after a disastrous opening round and now lies one under.