Matthew Fitzpatrick will take a two-stroke lead into the weekend at the Scandinavian Invitation after firing five birdies on his back nine to keep home hero Henrik Stenson at bay.
The Englishman, who won this event in 2016, carded six birdies and a single bogey in his second-round 65 to move to 11 under par.
His playing partner and Gothenburg native Stenson is in a tie for second place alongside China’s Ashun Wu after reeling off six consecutive birdies around the turn on his way to a sensational 62, which began with a bogey and featured nine birdies in total.
The enormous crowds cheered their every birdie as Fitzpatrick and Stenson took full advantage of favourable afternoon scoring conditions at Hills Golf & Sports Club.
After opening his second round with a bogey, Fitzpatrick made birdies at the fourth and 10th before rolling in from 30 feet for another at the 13th.
The 24-year-old swung in a second enormous birdie putt from some 35 feet at the short 15th to take the outright lead before extending his advantage to two shots with a close-range birdie on the 16th.
And Fitzpatrick closed his round with a sixth birdie of the day to stay two clear of the chasing pack.
Fitzpatrick told the European Tour’s official website: “It’s been great the past two days. Everything going to plan.”
Swede Joakim Lagergren and Australian Jason Scrivener, who had set the clubhouse target earlier in the day, are one shot behind Stenson and Wu in a tie for fourth on eight under.
Gavin Moyniham carded a three-under 67 that included four birdies to move to four under and into a tie for 18th position.
Paul Dunne suffered an eighth missed cut of the season after a two-over 72 saw him fall back to eight over.
LEADERBOARD
British and Irish unless stated, par 70, (a) denotes amateurs
129 Matthew Fitzpatrick 64 65
131 Ashun Wu (Chn) 67 64, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 62
132 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 69 63, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 63 69
133 Victor Perez (Fra) 68 65, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 62 71, Gavin Green (Mal) 66 67, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 65 68
134 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 66 68, Robert Rock 68 66, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 67 67, Alexander Levy (Fra) 63 71, James Morrison 66 68
135 Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) 69 66, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 67 68, John Catlin (USA) 66 69
136 Gavin Moynihan 69 67, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 68 68, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 67 69, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 70 66
137 Joost Luiten (Ned) 70 67, Zheng kai Bai (Chn) 73 64, Matthew Southgate 65 72, Paul Peterson (USA) 70 67, Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor) 68 69, Stephen Gallacher 70 67, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 67 70, Jamie Donaldson 69 68, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 67 70, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 70 67
138 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 68 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 71, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 70 68, Nick Cullen (Aus) 71 67, Brett Rumford (Aus) 70 68, Hyo-won Park (Kor) 67 71, Max Schmitt (Ger) 69 69, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 66 72, Jeff Winther (Den) 73 65, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 74 64, Per Langfors (Swe) 69 69, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 69 69, Thomas Detry (Bel) 72 66, Bradley Dredge 68 70
139 Jack Singh Brar 71 68, Henric Sturehed (Swe) 72 67, Renato Paratore (Ita) 72 67, Joachim B Hansen (Den) 70 69, Adam Bland (Aus) 70 69, Anton Karlsson (Swe) 71 68, Alex Noren (Swe) 72 67, Paul Waring 68 71, Matthew Nixon 70 69, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 70 69, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 68 71, Lee Slattery 69 70, Andy Sullivan 74 65, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 72 67, (a) David Nyfjall (Swe) 67 72, Sam Horsfield 69 70, Ryan Evans 71 68, Justin Walters (Rsa) 71 68, Borja Virto (Esp) 69 70, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 67 72
140 Ben Evans 73 67, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 69 71, Andrew Johnston 70 70, Oliver Wilson 71 69, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 73 67, Tom Lewis 69 71, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 70, Aaron Rai 70 70, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 67 73, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 68 72, Austin Connelly (Can) 67 73, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 70, Chris Wood 72 68, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 74 66, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 70 70, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 72 68, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 71 69, Max Orrin 71 69, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 69 71
MISSED CUT
141 (a) Albin Bergstrom (Swe) 71 70, Hugo Leon (Chi) 72 69, David Lingmerth (Swe) 68 73, Romain Wattel (Fra) 74 67, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 72 69, Robert Macintyre 72 69, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 72 69, Joel Girrbach (Swi) 73 68, Sam Brazel (Aus) 72 69, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 69 72, Scott Gregory 73 68
142 Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 73 69, Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita) 72 70, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 75 67, Romain Langasque (Fra) 71 71, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 73 69, Tom Murray 70 72, Jordan Smith 74 68, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 67 75, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 71 71, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 71 71
143 Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 72 71, Christopher Sahlstrom (Swe) 73 70, Ashley Chesters 72 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 75 68, (a) Vincent Norman (Swe) 71 72, Liam Johnston 70 73, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 71 72, Andres Romero (Arg) 75 68
144 Steven Brown 72 72, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 74 70, Laurie Canter 72 72, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 76 68, David Howell 73 71, Kim Koivu (Fin) 70 74, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 75 69
145 David Law 73 72, Richie Ramsay 72 73, Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 73 72, Lasse Jensen (Den) 73 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 70, David Borda (Esp) 74 71, Jonathan Thomson 74 71, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 76, Chris Paisley 75 70, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 76 69, Marc Warren 70 75, Soomin Lee (Kor) 74 71
146 Adri Arnaus (Esp) 76 70, Joakim Wikstrom (Swe) 78 68, Julian Suri (USA) 74 72, Stuart Manley 71 75
147 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 75 72, Richard McEvoy 74 73, Luis Gagne (Crc) 75 72, Oliver Fisher 73 74, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 75 72
148 Alexander Wennstam (Swe) 73 75, Paul Dunne 76 72, Oscar Lengden (Swe) 71 77
149 Minkyu Kim (Kor) 72 77, Scott Jamieson 72 77
150 Simon Forsstrom (Swe) 76 74, Philip Eriksson (Swe) 75 75, Michael Hoey 72 78, Joannes Axell (Swe) 77 73
159 Stefan Idstam (Swe) 83 76
