Darren Clarke scoffed at the notion that he might be one of the players looking in their rear-view mirror at Colin Montgomerie, as the £2 million Volvo Masters reached the halfway stage at Montecastillo. "You mean intimidated?" he asked after a second round 69 yesterday. "Only Heather (his wife) intimidates me."

Not even a hole-in-one from Montgomerie in the two-ball ahead of him affected the Tyroneman's equilibrium as he battled to a halfway position of seven under par - two strokes behind leader Pierre Fulke. "I haven't felt this comfortable about my game since La Costa," he added, referring to his Andersen Consulting Matchplay triumph last February. Though some of his comments were tongue in cheek, the Scot's overall reaction to his ace at the 174-yard 14th, where a six iron found the target, would not have endeared him to those patient souls who have gone through a golfing lifetime without such a reward. "I don't know how many that is - somewhere in the teens, I suspect," he said.

With more than half the field in red figures, Padraig Harrington shot a 69 to be among a group on three under par. It was the product of careful craftsmanship which saw him cover the last 10 holes in four under par. This included a run of three birdies from the long ninth, which he reached in two. The 10th succumbed to a six-foot putt and he reduced the 235-yard 11th to a three-iron and 20-foot putt. "I didn't putt particularly well today, but then I got more than my share yesterday," he said. "The important thing is that I have got myself into a challenging position for the weekend."

Paul McGinley seemed set to match Clarke's finish of Thursday, when he birdied the 16th and 17th. Instead of another birdie at the last, however, he paid the penalty for a pushed drive into a fairway bunker from where he failed to reach the green. Though it is always depressing to finish with a bogey, McGinley had more cause to remember a glorious eight-iron second shot of 132 yards into the wind on the treacherous 17th, where the ball came to rest six feet behind the pin. "My plan was to attack the course today, but I didn't drive the ball well enough to do a really good score," he said.

Fulke, who gained his second European Tour win in the Scottish PGA in August, acknowledged that there are some big names breathing down his neck. But he insisted: "It's good that I managed to keep in front of them. I wasn't nervous at all."

But Clarke seems determined to tighten the screw. "I probably played better today than in my opening 68," he said. "I was moving the ball a little too much from right to left, so I had to aim away from the flags on the back nine." This explained a decidedly quiet homeward journey which contained only one birdie, at the long 16th.

His front nine was far more interesting in that it contained four birdies and two bogeys. One of those dropped shots was the result of three putts at the short second and he was also punished for a pulled five-iron approach at the seventh. Otherwise, he looked to be on top of his game, even to the extent of holing a 15-foot chip at the fourth.

Some truly extraordinary things would need to happen over the next nine days for Montgomerie to retain the Order of Merit for an eighth successive year. But his first words after moving within three strokes of the lead were: "Never write me off. With two 67s, I can challenge for this title."

The wind changed direction and abated somewhat from Thursday, but the scoring was still remarkably good. And the hottest of the hot was Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson who had nine birdies in a stunning 65 to jump into a share of third place. Ahead of him, in second place on his own, is probably the greatest threat to Clarke. Remarkably, Jose-Maria Olazabal found serious rough off the tee only once in a solid 69. There was no hint that he might be looking back at Montgomerie. Dual US Masters winners don't think that way.