Paul Lawrie kept a bogey off his card for the second day running to open up a two-stroke lead over Ireland's Jonathan Caldwell midway through the second round of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

The 1999 Open champion, who has not won a tournament for seven years and is fighting to keep his European Tour card this season, added a 69 to his opening 67.

That gave Lawrie an eight-under-par halfway total and he said: "I played solid again, but missed a few putts which was disappointing."

Caldwell, a European Tour rookie who was Rory McIlroy's partner in the 2007 Walker Cup, moved into second place with a superb 66.

Only one under with seven holes to play the 25-year-old from Bangor birdied the 12th and 14th and then finished with three in a row.

Fellow Ulsterman Gareth Maybin shot a 73 to drop back to two under.

Gary Murphy (69) is next best of the Irish on two under and Damien McGrane is level par after a 72.

Rookie Shane Lowry improved to one over with a 71, a score also shot by Peter Lawrie who moved to three over.

Paul McGinley signed for a 77 to drop back to five over.

Lawrie's playing partner Jose Maria Olazabal is in a share of third place with Ryder Cup Dane Soren Hansen and France's Gregory Bourdy.

Olazabal was delighted with a 68 that started with five birdies in six holes.

The 43-year-old Spaniard, whose appearances the last three years have been limited by rheumatism, said: "I can't practise as much as I need and there's still a little bit of pain here and there, especially when I wake up in the morning.

"You have to take it slow and give yourself time to try to loosen up. I have to live with that for the time being."

Olazabal has not had a top-10 finish in Europe since 2006, but he did finish sixth in the US Tour's Verizon Heritage tournament at Hilton Head in April.

He confirmed in a recent magazine interview that he was offered the Ryder Cup captaincy at the start of the year, but declined it because he wanted to see if his health improved sufficiently for him to make a bid to return to the team.

He then put his name forward to the committee, but by then they already had Colin Montgomerie's agreement do the job if they wanted him to.

Olazabal is seen, however, as the obvious man for the job in America in three years' time.

Indian Shiv Kapur had joined Lawrie out in front by sinking a 90-yard pitch for an eagle three on the 533-yard 18th.

But that was his ninth hole of the day and after a birdie at the first he bogeyed the third and ran up a triple bogey six on the short fourth, where he needed three attempts to get out of a bunker.

Also making his presence felt was 19-year-old New Zealander Danny Lee, playing his first event in Europe since becoming the circuit's youngest ever winner in Australia in February.

Lee, who turned professional after The Masters in April and has based himself in the United States since then, had six birdies, but four bogeys meant he had to be content with a 70 and three-under aggregate.

As for Montgomerie, he was among the later starters and after a first day 76 was in severe danger of a fourth successive missed cut for the first time in his Tour career.

Swede Mikael Lundberg, who began with a 79, was disqualified when he simply did not show up for his second round.

Montgomerie birdied the first and eighth, but missed the chance of another on the long ninth and so at two over was still one outside the expected cut mark.

Lawrie, meanwhile, continued to lead by two from Caldwell and by three from a group of six - Olazabal, Hansen, Bourdy, Kapur, Swede Michael Jonzon and Dutchman Maarten Lafeber.