KAYMER’S BACK IN THE HUNT

MARTIN KAYMER surged into contention for his first victory in four years as several of Europe’s star names rediscovered their top form in the Italian Open.

Kaymer, whose last win brought him a second Major title in the 2014 US Open, carded a second-round 63 at Gardagolf to finish 11 under par, a shot ahead of Graeme Mcdowell, Danny Willett, Thomas Pieters, Rafa Cabrera-bello and home favourite Francesco Molinari.

But after another day of low scoring, the entire field will be separated by just seven shots heading into the weekend, with the halfway cut falling at four under par.

“It’s been a while since I played that solidly,” the German said after a round which included five straight birdies from the 13th.

“I think I was getting very close recently but that positivity was missing on the golf course because I haven’t had a lot of good results.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve won Majors and had the situations I had at the Ryder Cup, it’s really exciting to be in a position that you can win a golf tournament again.”

Mcdowell’s last win came in 2015 and he was named as a Ryder Cup vice-captain last week, but the former US Open champion has not given up hope of qualifying for the team instead after missing out, like he did in 2016.

“My head will be down this weekend and I will be grinding really hard,” the Portrush man (above) said after a 66. “There’s a lot of really great players in this field.’’

Former Masters champion Willett added a 67 to his opening 65 and has yet to drop a shot this week.

“I haven’t made a cut for a while so to actually be this side of the leaderboard is pretty nice,” he said.

BACK IN THE SWING Kaymer leading