Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer, Ryder Cup team-mates who both ended last year lifting a trophy, were part of a four-way tie for the halfway lead at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
But Paul Lawrie, another of Europe’s heroes in Chicago, saw his defence of the title come to a premature end after a four-putt double bogey on the 15th hole. He missed the cut by a single stroke.
Fellow Scot, Peter Whiteford, dropped back to tied 20th with a 73 in his second round.
Lawrie’s playing partner Garcia shot 66 and Kaymer returned a 67 to be alongside Australian Marcus Fraser and Portugal’s Ricardo Santos on nine under par.
Garcia underwent laser eye surgery to correct astigmatism following the victory over the Americans in September but finished 2012 with a round of 61 for a three-shot win at the Johor Open in Malaysia.
That came two weeks after Kaymer, the man who sank the putt to retain the Ryder Cups, took the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa by two.
While the German played in Abu Dhabi last week and came joint sixth, this is Garcia’s first appearance of the season.
World No 4 Justin Rose made his first cut in five visits to Doha but with a 71 for five under last week’s runner-up has four strokes to make up and lies joint 20th.
Rose, penalised a shot on the opening day when his ball moved as he prepared to tap in on the 17th, had only himself to blame for a bogey six at the 591-yard first.
That was his 10th hole of the round and he sent his second shot way right into the desert scrub and needed three more just to make the green.
Open champion Ernie Els, winner in 2005, made it through with nothing to spare on one under but twice champion Lawrie was unable to recover from his nightmare four holes from home.
The Scot three-putted from three feet from the flag before missing a six-foot chance to survive on the last.
New Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley also bowed out, as did his two immediate predecessors Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie.
Craig Lee is three under par, while Chris Doak, Scott Henry, David Drysdale and Stephen Gallacher all made it through to round three on one under.
Marc Warren missed the cut.