Lee Westwood is relishing a rare lie-in on Saturday as he chases his first tournament victory in almost three years.
Westwood added a second-round 68 to his opening 65 for an 11-under-par halfway total of 133 in the BMW International Open in Munich, just four shots behind leader Robert Karlsson of Sweden.
It means the 30-year-old will be among the later starters in the third round and could signal an end to the spectacular loss of form which has seen him slump from fourth in the world to 215th.
Paul McGinley (-9), another player who has struggled for form recently, is two shots further back after a second round 66. The Dubliner heads the Irish challenge while Gary Murphy, Damien McGrane and Peter Lawrie are all the happy side of par.
Westwood has not won since his seven victories worldwide in 2000 which saw him end Colin Montgomerie's seven-year reign as European number one.
But he began working with renowned coach David Leadbetter in January this year and after painstaking progress, Leadbetter told him at the recent USPGA Championship that his swing "looked as good as it ever has".
"It's nice to be in contention again, I haven't been for quite a while," said Westwood who did not have a single top-10 finish throughout last year. "I'm looking forward to seeing my name on the leaderboard again and having a lie-on on Saturday for a change.
"It's my first time at this course but I've got Pete Coleman working for me now, who caddied for Bernhard Langer for 22 years, so he's been here a few times before and knew all the lines."
Karlsson leads by two shots from first round leader Raphael Jacquelin of France, who added a 69 to his opening 62 which had equalled the course record at Nord-Eichenried.
Another Swede, Irish Open runner-up Peter Hedblom, was a shot further back alongside England's Gary Emerson who carded a second-round 68.