When Anthony Wall beat Paul Casey in the final of the Surrey amateur championship 14 years ago he knew Casey would go on to great things - and he hoped he would too.
He was right about Casey, but one victory in 318 starts is not quite how the taxi driver's son saw the road ahead for himself.
This weekend, however, Wall has a chance to win the European Open at the London Club in Kent and move into the world's top 50 for the first time, seven days after Casey went to number three by capturing the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
On his 34th birthday the Londoner totally outshone playing partner Shane Lowry again and moved only one behind Indian Jeev Milkha Singh and France's Michael Lorenzo-Vera at halfway.
While the professional debut of shock Irish Open winner Lowry ended two days earlier than he wanted after rounds of 78 and 73, Wall added a 69 to his opening 68 to stand seven under par.
"I've been an also-ran for a long time, but I expect to do well this week," said the man whose only Tour victory came in South Africa nine years ago.
"I've got better technique and now I'm getting older things don't bother me quite as much.
"But you don't win unless you putt well for four days and to be honest I've only done that once or twice in my life."
Not that Wall could be called a struggling professional by any stretch of the imagination.
He has earned more than Ј2million in the last three years and he has loftier ambitions than the European Open. Asked what he hoped to have achieved by the time he turns 40 he replied: "I hope to have won The Open.
"It's always been my goal and the first time I played one the atmosphere blew me away."
That was Sandwich in 2003 and he spent the first two rounds with eventual winner Ben Curtis, ranked 396th in the world at the time.
"Just shows you, doesn't it?" commented Wall.
Singh was out in the much windier afternoon and his 69 was a superb effort, although after chipping in at the short 17th he bogeyed the last.
Not that that was a disgrace. With water down the left there were sixes, sevens and eights galore - and one of the sixes was by world number four Sergio Garcia as he went from two under to level par.
Defending champion Ross Fisher did the same for two over and he had to wait 90 minutes before discovering that meant he missed the cut by one.
At one over Lee Westwood just survived despite also taking six on the 18th - his ninth - and the wind saved Colin Montgomerie too. When he finished on level par at lunchtime the Ryder Cup captain thought he was out, but in the end he made it with one shot to spare.
Masters champion Angel Cabrera and world number five Henrik Stenson missed the cut, both for the second week running. Stenson shot 78-80 for 12 over.
Lorenzo-Vera won the "second division" Challenge Tour two years ago and was second in the China Open last season, but a small boy in Dubai will remember him for something very different - he gave him his whole set of irons at the Desert Classic in January.
"Usually I break the clubs when I am angry, so Raphael Jacquelin told me one day 'Instead of breaking it, just give it'.
"The boy asked for an autograph and I said 'I have better for you'. He was a very happy little boy."
The 24-year-old was much more satisfied with his equipment today, not dropping a shot and picking up birdies at the 12th, 16th and fourth for a 69.
Lowry will try again at next week's Wales Open and at the Open qualifier at Sunningdale on Monday week.
"I wasn't firing on all cylinders, but I am looking forward to being just another player out there," said the 22-year-old.
Collated second round scores & totals
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
136 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 67 69, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 69
137 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 67 70, Anthony Wall 68 69
138 Anders Hansen (Den) 65 73, Jamie Donaldson 68 70, Peter Lawrie 67 71, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 68
139 Peter Hanson (Swe) 66 73, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 69 70, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 66 73
140 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 69 71, Christopher Doak 68 72
141 Anton Haig (Rsa) 68 73, Steve Webster 69 72, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 67 74, Ben Curtis (USA) 68 73, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 71 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 70, Tano Goya (Arg) 69 72, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 71 70, Sam Little 66 75, Ross McGowan 70 71, Bradley Dredge 72 69
142 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 73, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 74, Rory McIlroy 69 73, Chris Wood 69 73, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 67 75, Shaun Micheel (USA) 71 71, Oliver Fisher 71 71
143 Gary Orr 71 72, Graeme McDowell 70 73, Marcel Siem (Ger) 67 76, David Horsey 68 75, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 72, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 75, Simon Khan 67 76, Callum Macaulay 71 72, David Drysdale 72 71, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 72, Taco Remkes (Ned) 70 73
144 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 71 73, Richie Ramsay 74 70, Soren Hansen (Den) 69 75, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 69 75, Colin Montgomerie 70 74, Branden Grace (Rsa) 69 75, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 74, Graeme Storm 68 76, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 74, Paul Lawrie 73 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 72, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 67 77, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 68 76
145 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 70 75, Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 70 75, Roope Kakko (Fin) 69 76, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 74, Paul Waring 70 75, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 71 74, Steven O'Hara 71 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 71 74, Brett Rumford (Aus) 75 70, Stephen Dodd 75 70, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 69 76, Mark Foster 73 72, Paul McGinley 70 75, Lee Westwood 70 75
Missed cut:
146 Ross Fisher 73 73, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 73, David Howell 70 76, John Bickerton 72 74, David Lynn 72 74, Seve Benson 71 75, Richard Finch 74 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 72 74, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 71 75
147 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 70 77, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 66 81, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 75 72, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 75, Danny Willett 72 75, David Frost (Rsa) 74 73, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 73 74, Wil Besseling (Ned) 73 74, John Daly (USA) 71 76, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 74 73, Pablo Martin (Spa) 75 72, Richard Bland 70 77, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 75, Stephen Gallacher 73 74, Richard Green (Aus) 73 74, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 74 73
148 Damien McGrane 74 74, Gary Murphy 75 73, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 74 74, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 76, Alastair Forsyth 71 77, Nick Dougherty 72 76
149 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 76, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 74 75, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 76, Benn Barham 73 76, Gareth Maybin 74 75, Oliver Wilson 71 78, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 72 77, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 76 73, Simon Wakefield 71 78, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 76, David Dixon 73 76, Phillip Archer 75 74, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 79
150 Zane Scotland 75 75, Phillip Price 77 73, Scott Drummond 72 78, David Gilford 79 71, Darren Clarke 74 76, Gary Lockerbie 73 77, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 78, Gregory Havret (Fra) 76 74
151 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 72 79, Shane Lowry 78 73, Jason McCreadie 76 75, Kenneth Ferrie 76 75, Michael Hoey 73 78, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 75 76
152 Robert Dinwiddie 76 76, Jarmo Sandelin(Swe) 78 74, Andrew Coltart 75 77, Scott Strange (Aus) 77 75, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 72 80, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 71 81, Barry Lane 76 76
153 Anthony Kang (USA) 72 81, Lee Slattery 71 82, Inder Van Weerelt (Ned) 74 79
154 Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 77 77, Marc Warren 79 75, James Ablett 73 81, Peter Senior (Aus) 73 81, Simon Dyson 79 75
155 Robert Rock 74 81, Andrew Oldcorn 76 79, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 80 75, Paul Broadhurst 73 82, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 83
156 Alan McLean 76 80, Mark Brown (Nzl) 77 79, Miles Tunnicliff 72 84, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 76 80
157 Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 79 78, Scott Arnold (Hkg) 79 78, Reinier Saxton (Ned) 84 73
158 Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 74 84
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