When you’ve got a professional golfer with clothing deals here, sponsors there and equipment contracts everywhere, what do you buy him for his birthday?

“It’s hard to buy for me,” admitted Connor Syme, who celebrated his 23rd birthday on the eve of this week’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open. “But if they could buy me 62s, I’d take that every year.”

Those are pretty hard to find. You can’t even order them on Amazon. Syme found one yesterday, though, as he treated himself to a belated birthday treat with a shimmering eight-under 62 during a low scoring frenzy in the domestic showpiece which propelled him up the order with a seven-under tally of 133.

His fine effort set a new Gullane course record which stood for over eight hours until Japan’s Hideto Tanihara emerged late on when almost everybody else was away home with a nine-under 61. Robert Rock may be leading the field by two strokes with a 13-under 127 at the halfway stage but Fife rookie Syme has given himself plenty to play for over the closing two days.

Off in the dawn patrol at 6.50am and greeted by a pleasant, calm morning with flags as limp as some of this correspondent’s intros, Syme was well aware that he had to seize the moment and mount a robust offensive.

The first few holes at Gullane have been traumatised by a birdie barrage this week and so many players have made fast starts, you just about expect the front nine to reek of burning rubber.

On day one, however, Syme spluttered off the tee and lost his opening drive before making a double bogey on the fifth in an opening one-over card. It was a different outcome yesterday, however.

Four birdies on his first five holes provided the platform for a sturdy advance as he romped to the turn in 29. “We had a bit of a debrief after that opening drive on Thursday,” he said. “That was down to nerves. Sometimes you want to look at the biggest club and I didn’t quite fancy a 2-iron.

“The driver was the wrong club. There were about 40 people trying to help us find the ball and we didn’t. I made a couple of brain-dead decisions but I learned from that as there were none in round two.”

Syme was certainly at home on the links. He’s actually been billeted in a house which looks out over the 18th green. “I was aiming at the house off the 18th tee,” he said of that welcoming reference point.

Having missed the cut in all three of the big-money Rolex Series events he has played in this season, this was a nice time to end that run as Syme, who was runner-up in the Shot Clock Masters last month, strives to safeguard his tour card. A sizeable cheque on Sunday would be a timely boost.

“Despite my start on Thursday, I was confident in what I was doing,” he added. “It sounds daft but I did nothing differently but scored nine shots better.”

It was business as usual for the frontrunner Rock as he remained as solid as his surname suggests with a nicely crafted 63.

His cards over the first couple of days have been as pristine as the man himself. Whatever the conditions, there never seems to be a hair out of place or a crumple in the garments of Rock which leads you to believe that the neatly manicured Midlander actually has a shower and a change of clothes in between holes.

For the second day in a row, the 41-year-old failed to drop a shot. “I’ve not done that many times,” he said. In fact, according to the stats folk, he’s never managed a bogey-free opening 36-holes on the tour in his career.

Rock is chasing one of three Open places up for grabs this week. He’ll be at Carnoustie whatever happens as a coach but that doesn’t quite cut it. “The Open is everything,” he said. “I hate missing the Open and it’s hard just going as a coach and not playing.”

Football may not be coming home, but Tyrell Hatton bolstered English hopes of at least taking the Scottish Open over the border as he tucked himself into a share of second on 11-under with California’s Rickie Fowler, the 2015 champion at Gullane, a shot further back on 10-under alongside another Englishman, Eddie Pepperell.

As for the man from the land of the Rising Sun? Well, he was doing his stuff in the land of the setting sun as a superb round slowly unfolded as the clock ticked on.

An eagle and seven birdies in 15 holes had him flirting with an historic 59 but he couldn’t muster any more gains. A course record wasn’t bad, though.

The 39-year-old, who was fifth in the 2006 Open and is a prolific winner in his homeland, jumped up some 124 places with an 11 shot improvement on his first round.

Phil Mickelson, the 2013 champion, was one of the early casualties as he missed the cut on a 139 while the defending champion, Rafa Cabrera Bello, also joined the dearly departed on a similar score.

The semi-retired Peter Whiteford, who had started so promisingly with a 65, also exited with a 74 along with a posse of other Scots which included the likes of Richie Ramsay, Bradley Neil, Martin Laird, David Drysdale and Scott Jamieson.