Luke Donald fought back from a bogey at the opening hole for the second round running at the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World.
Just as he did in his first round 72, the World Number One came straight back with three birdies in the next four holes to boost his hopes of adding The Race to Dubai to his US PGA Tour title in America in October.
Nobody has ever done the double in the same season and Rory McIlroy was the only remaining challenger to Donald.
The bad news for the Englishman was that McIlroy, needing to win to have a chance, had started the final event with a six under par 66 to be in third place, two behind Swede Peter Hanson.
Donald needed to finish in nothing worse than a two-way tie for ninth to make sure, but was only joint 26th when he resumed - and instantly hit trouble.
Having only just avoided the bushes on the right the day before, he headed towards them again and even hit a provisional ball just in case his original drive was not found.
It was in deep rough short of the bushes as it turned out and after hacking out he almost pitched into the hole with his third shot, but then missed his four foot par attempt.
He made no mistake from the same distance on the long next, however, and converted a 15 foot opportunity at the third to climb to one under and when he birdied again on the fifth he had improved to 14th spot.
With the leaders out last, McIlroy was in the penultimate group with Sergio Garcia - chasing a third straight European Tour win and five under overnight - while Hanson had Paul Lawrie for company after the Scot's 65.
Donald took a step back again when he bogeyed the eighth and, with the middle of the pack so tightly bunched, it dropped him all the way to joint 31st.
A par on the next meant he turned in a one under 35 as McIlroy got ready to tee off again.
The player making the biggest move forward was Paul Casey, who eagled the seventh and birdied the second, fourth and eighth to be five under for the day and the tournament.
Last week the former Ryder Cup player came back from an opening 79 to be third at the Chevron World Challenge in California.
