Bernhard Langer tonight declared his compatriot Martin Kaymer ready for the Ryder Cup after seeing him scorch to a 63 and into a five-stroke halfway lead at the International Open.
"I don't think it's too early," said Langer of the 23-year-old dubbed his "Herr Apparent", who with victory on Sunday could leap from 10th to sixth in the race for places in Nick Faldo's team.
"He is a winner and he has proved that. He hits it extremely long and very straight, but what was most impressive today was his putting."
Fifty-year-old Langer, 24 himself when he first played against the Americans in
1981, made the cut on two under, but is a massive 11 strokes behind.
And with nobody even close at the halfway stage — England's Benn Barham and Frenchman Francois Delamontagne are his closest challengers on eight-under — the one German trophy to have eluded Langer in his glittering career could well be in the hands of his young playing partner at the end of the weekend.
While Kaymer had a day to remember — he was only one outside the course record - Graeme McDowell had one to forget.
Ninth on the cup table, McDowell missed the halfway cut by a single shot after going into the water both with his pitch to the 16th for a double bogey and then with his drive down the last.
"It was a weak shot — a bad shot," he said of the former. "But I was under the weather today. I picked up a stomach bug and was up all night, so no good."
Also heading home early are Damien McGrane (level par) and Rory McIlroy (three-over) but Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy (both three-under) will be around to challenge over the weekend.
Order of Merit leader Miguel Angel Jimenez crashed out on level par, but his Ryder Cup spot looks pretty secure and it was understandable after the exertions needed for his sixth place finish in last week's US Open.
John Daly also exited on the same mark, but English cup contender Richard Finch, winner of the New Zealand and Irish Opens already this season, is in the hunt for a third title at seven-under.
Paul Casey, again suffering badly from hayfever, David Howell, Retief Goosen and Bradley Dredge are among those one further back, but Colin Montgomerie is down on three under and in danger of being an also-ran yet again.
Collated scores
131 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 63
136 Benn Barham 68 68, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 70 66
137 Tino Schuster (Ger) 69 68, Richard Finch 69 68, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 66 71, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 68, Graeme Storm 68 69
138 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 69, Ross Fisher 70 68, David Howell 69 69, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 70 68, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 70 68, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 69 69, Paul Casey 70 68, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 67, Ariel Canete (Arg) 73 65, Thomas Levet (Fra) 69 69, Bradley Dredge 73 65
139 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 67 72, Anton Haig (Rsa) 66 73, Anders Hansen (Den) 69 70, Stephan jr. Gross (Ger) 71 68, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 66 73, Mark Foster 67 72
140 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 72 68, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 70 70, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 69, John Bickerton 70 70, David Lynn 67 73, Simon Khan 75 65, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 70 70, Barry Lane 70 70, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 71 69
141 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 73 68, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 68 73, Colin Montgomerie 70 71, Peter Lawrie 73 68, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 69 72, Oliver Fisher 71 70, Alex Cejka (Ger) 74 67, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 67 74, Alexander Noren (Swe) 68 73, Gary Murphy 71 70, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 70, Florian Praegant (Aut) 74 67, Peter owler (Aus) 71 70, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 66 75
142 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 70 72, Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 70, Carl Suneson (Spa) 69 73, Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 71 71, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 72, Alastair Forsyth 74 68, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 72
143 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 74 69, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 72, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 71 72, Mark Brown (USA) 72 71, David Frost (Rsa) 74 69, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 68 75, Iain Pyman 69 74, Pedro Linhart (Spa) 70 73, Tom Whitehouse 72 71, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 73 70
Following players failled to make the cut
144 Damien McGrane 74 70, David Griffiths 71 73, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 72 72, Simon Wakefield 70 74, John Daly (USA) 72 72, Robert Rock 74 70, Max Kramer (Aut) 71 73, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 70 74, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 70 74, Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 73 71, Garry Houston 71 73, Graeme McDowell 71 73, Stuart Manley 73 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 71, Sam Walker 73 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 69 75, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 73 71
145 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 73 72, Juan Abbate (Arg) 71 74, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 74 71, Peter Baker 75 70, Luis Claverie (Spa) 73 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 76 69, Paul Broadhurst 75 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 76 69, Anthony Wall 73 72, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 74 71, Sion Bebb 72 73, Paul Lawrie 74 71, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 67 78
146 Gary Orr 72 74, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 73 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 72 74, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 73, Christoph Gunther (Ger) 75 71, Lee S James 73 73, Marcel Haremza (Ger) 74 72, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 72 74, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 71 75
147 Matthew Millar (Aus) 69 78, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 72, Andrew Coltart 75 72, Phillip Price 74 73, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 74 73, David Drysdale 76 71, Rory McIlroy 72 75, Stephen Dodd 72 75, Stephen Gallacher 74 73, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 75, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 69 78, Phillip Archer 76 71
148 Marc Warren 74 74, James Kingston (Rsa) 71 77, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 75 73
149 Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 73 76, Sven Struver (Ger) 76 73, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 74 75, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 72 77, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 72 77
150 Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 73 77, Magnus Carlsson (Swe) 73 77, David Dixon 78 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 73 77, Scott Drummond 73 77, Sam Little 75 75, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 75 75
151 Richard Bland 76 75, Julio Zapata (Arg) 74 77, Simon Dyson 75 76, Gary Birch jr (Ger) 77 74
152 David Carter 80 72, Peter Whiteford 75 77, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 77 75, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 76 76
153 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 77 76, Dennis Kupper (Ger) 74 79, Sean Einhaus (Ger) 80 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 75 78
154 Marc Farry (Fra) 76 78, Zane Scotland 74 80, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 74 80, Miles Tunnicliff 81 73
155 Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 78 77
156 Rick Kulacz (Aus) 83 73, Richard Porter (Ger) 77 79
157 Pablo Martin (Spa) 76 81
158 Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 80 78
