Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri battled to a three-under 69 to move up to tied eighth after the second round of the Valero Texas Open, five shots behind leader Cameron Tringale.
After turning in 35 with a birdie on two, the former Asian no 1 endured a rollercoaster back nine with three birdies, three bogeys and one eagle at TPC San Antonio for a two-day total of four-under 140 on Friday.
Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama came home in 74 to slip to T14 while Korea's Sung Kang will enter the weekend on 142 after returning a 76, some 10 shots worse than his opening round effort.
Tringale made five consecutive birdies from hole numbers 13-17, tying the longest birdie streak of his PGA TOUR career as he chases a career first victory in his 297th start.
He leads by two from Jordan Spieth, a 14-time winner but not since 2017. Spieth shares the second place with England's Matt Wallace.
Lahiri holed a 20-foot eagle on 14 on his back nine but left the course with a bitter taste in his mouth following a closing birdie on the par-5, 18th hole when his second shot ended in a watery creek.
Still, his rise up the leaderboard will inject the confidence he needed in his game following a lean spell in 2021, where he has missed five cuts in seven starts.
"I've been working on my ball striking and it was nice to see it come together. I was happy that I made a lot of birdies, dropped a few but trying to keep a clean card over the weekend," said Lahiri.
He opted to skip last week's Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship to work hard at his game despite finishing T6 in the same event last September, which was his last top-10 on the TOUR.
The decision seems to be paying off.
"I feel like I'm moving in the right direction and it's progressing in a good way. I still need to stay on top of it and keep building on it," Lahiri said.
Spieth, making his sixth start in his home state event, continued to show a resurgence in form as a second-round 70, thanks to birdies on 14 and 15, kept him in the title hunt. He has finished in top-10 in four of his last six tournaments.