Shane Lowry admits he would have been "devastated" leaving Mount Juliet for Dublin last night had he missed the cut.
Instead, he was proud of the comeback he produced down the stretch, displaying a gritty determination interlaced with some exquisite shots to escape the dreaded cut mark and leave himself tied with Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood on five under par.
That's well behind Australian pace-setter Lucas Herbert, who followed up an opening 64 with a 67, and there are a host of players between the high-profile trio and the top of the leaderboard.
But at least they are there for the weekend, with McIlroy producing a much-improved 67 that was set up by a searing four under par front nine.
Roared on by the partisan crowd, Lowry picked up two early birdies to ease himself to four under for the tournament, only to give those shots back by the time he got to the 11th tee.
He was actually outside the cut mark when he drove into the rough on 13 in windy conditions.
But the 34-year-old rallied to birdie that hole, then scrambled pars on his next two holes before quality approaches set up closing birdies on 16 and 17.
"Yeah, to be honest, at that point on 13 I knew the cut was going to be 3-under," said Lowry.
"I was just saying to myself, 'well, if I can give myself a couple of chances and birdie 17...'.
"I made the cut, tried to get one more, sort of thinking if I can get to four under it would be a nice finish.
"It wasn't easy out there. It got cold and the wind got up and it was tricky this afternoon.
"I'm proud of myself, how I battled. I hate playing golf on the cut mark.
"It's no fun at all, especially in your home tournament where you're trying so desperately hard to do well with a lot of people supporting me and familiar faces in the crowd.
"I would have been devastated driving in the car back to Dublin if I had missed.
"It's nice to be here on the weekend. And it's nice to get to a decent number. It was nice to get to 5-under and that gives me a glimmer of hope where I can shoot 5 or 6-under, bit of bad weather, you never know what can happen, and put myself in the running on Sunday."
After a disappointing first round, McIlroy worked on his irons on Thursday night and worked something out.
He was much more dialled in yesterday morning and had picked up four shots by the turn, then held it together when his momentum stalled coming in on the par 5s.
"I'm going to need something at least the same if not better to give myself a chance," McIlroy said.
