Gregory Havret and Jose Manuel Lara shared a one-stroke lead over Phil Mickelson on Friday, while Colin Montgomerie missed the halfway cut in the Scottish Open.
Havret birdied five holes on the back nine for a 64 while Lara had an eagle and two birdies on his last six holes for a 65. They had totals of 132, 10 under par.
Montgomerie shot a 3-over 74, missing the cut the week before the British Open for the first time in his career.
"I just didn't putt well today," Montgomerie said. "I hit 27 out of 28 fairways [over two days]. That proves it's a putting competition and I just didn't putt well."
Mickelson finished his round in heavy rain but felt he had missed a chance earlier to post a better score.
"I didn't feel all that great today," he said. "I was fighting it on the tee and fighting it with the putter but I got away with a couple of bad shots that stayed in play."
Mickelson had shared the first-round lead with Graeme Storm, Soren Hansen and Lee Westwood, who shot 72, 73 and 74 respectively on Friday.
Havret had two birdies and seven pars on the front nine, and then made a 30-foot birdie putt at the short but difficult 11th.
"Many players take four there so that was nice," Havret said. "Everything came together today."
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