Marcus Kinhult produced a brilliant performance to open up a two-shot lead heading into day three of the HNA Open de France in Paris.
Le Golf National will play host to the Ryder Cup in September and windy conditions and punishing rough meant that a field containing world number two Justin Thomas and world number five Jon Rahm were handed a tough test over the first two days.
Thomas and Rahm produced back-to-back under par rounds to ensure they were well in contention heading into the weekend but it was Kinhult who stole the show, carding a 65 to get to six under and lead the way by two shots from England’s Chris Wood.
He is also five shots clear of Paul Dunne, who was the pick of the Irish contingent in action on Friday.
Dunne shot a 74 on Thursday but he was much improved in his second round, shooting a four under par 67 to move to into a five-way share of ninth place and firmly into contention.
Starting from the 10th 25-year-old Dunne got off to a flyer, birdying the 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th to reach the turn on four under. He couldn’t keep that momentum going on the back nine and dropped a shot on the seventh - his 16th - but took that shot back on his final hole.
Elsewhere Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry will feature over the weekend after making the cut - but both sit well off the pace.
McDowell followed his opening round of 68 with a 77 which included two double-bogeys and a quadruple-bogey on the 18th, to leave him three over par for the tournament. He is tied with Lowry who shot a 75 on Friday to go with his opening round of 70.
At the top of the leaderboard 21-year-old Swede Kinhult produced a flawless front nine, adding an eagle on the par five third to birdies on the second, fourth, seventh and ninth as he turned in 30. He made bogeys on the 13th and 17th but each time bounced back with a gain to keep his nose in front.
“It feels good, it feels really good,” he told www.europeantour.com. “I got off to a great start and played well from there. The wind picked up a little bit on the back nine, the last four or five holes or so, but happy overall.
“Saturday is going to be a big day and hopefully Sunday as well. It’s a position I have never been in before so we’ll see.”
Wood is attempting to make his second consecutive European Ryder Cup team and some course form will do his chances no harm, as he recovered from bogeys on the 10th and 11th with birdies on the 14th, 15th, 18th, second and ninth.
Rahm carded a 69 to sit at three under alongside Welshman Bradley Dredge, a shot clear of Thomas, Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick, local favourite Gregory Havret and American Julian Suri.
Tommy Fleetwood and Rafa Cabrera Bello were among the big-name casualties to fall outside of the four under par cut mark.
Meanwhile Tiger Woods has moved himself into contention in the Quicken Loans National, after he shot a five under par second round of 65 in Maryland.
Woods made seven birdies and dropped two shots as he climbed up the leaderboard on Friday, moving to five under par for the tournament - four shots off the halfway lead of Beau Hossler, Bryan Gay and Ryan Armour.
14-time Major winner Woods got his second round off to a good start at TPC Potomac, with an opening birdie on the 10th - his first hole.
Three further birdies and two bogeys on the way out saw him reach the turn on two under par before he kicked on down the back nine.
He picked up shots on two, three and five - his 11th, 12th and 14 - to leave himself firmly in the mix heading into the weekend.
Woods is a shot clear of Seamus Power, who currently lies on four under par, level with Rickie Fowler.
Power followed his opening 66 with a level par second round of 70, which included two birdies and two bogeys.
Collated second round scores in the HNA Open de France (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):
136 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 71 65
138 Chris Wood 70 68
139 Jon Rahm (Spa) 70 69, Bradley Dredge 67 72
140 Julian Suri (USA) 70 70, Justin Thomas (USA) 70 70, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 70, Matthew Fitzpatrick 71 69
141 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 69, Paul Dunne 74 67, Tyrrell Hatton 74 67, Jordan Smith 71 70, Russell Knox 71 70, Pedro Oriol (Spa) 71 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 74 67
142 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 76 66, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 73 69, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 70, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 71 71, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 74 68, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 69 73
143 Ryan Fox (Nzl) 72 71, Henric Sturehed (Swe) 75 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 75 68, Andy Sullivan 68 75, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 69 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 74 69, Austin Connelly (Can) 72 71, Thomas Detry (Bel) 74 69
144 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 72, Richard Bland 72 72, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 73 71, George Coetzee (Rsa) 74 70, Matthew Southgate 71 73, James Morrison 70 74, Haotong Lie (Chn) 71 73, Scott Hend (Aus) 75 69, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 71, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 74 70, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 76 68
145 Ricardo Gouveia (Prt) 71 74, Steven Brown 77 68, Graeme McDowell 68 77, Alex Noren (Swe) 73 72, Ashley Chesters 73 72, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 76 69, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 74, Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha) 71 74, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 76 69, Jeff Winther (Den) 77 68, Stephen Gallacher 74 71, Shane Lowry 70 75, Sam Brazel (Aus) 73 72, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 74 71
146 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 77 69, David Horsey 75 71, Josh Geary (Nzl) 73 73, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 71 75, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 74 72, Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 75, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 72 74, Jamie Donaldson 71 75, Ian Poulter 72 74, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 72, Alexander Levy (Fra) 73 73
147 Jason Norris (Aus) 77 70, Seung-su Han (USA) 70 77, Tommy Fleetwood 74 73, David Lipsky (USA) 77 70, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 73 74, Renato Paratore (Ita) 77 70
148 Richie Ramsay 73 75, Matt Wallace 74 74, Charlie Ford 72 76, Matthew Nixon 74 74, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 75 73, Danny Willett 73 75, Matthew Baldwin 76 72, Chris Paisley 77 71, Lee Slattery 72 76, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 76 72, Oliver Fisher 72 76, Mark Foster 74 74, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 75
149 S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 75 74, Lasse Jensen (Den) 77 72, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 74 75, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 73 76, Romain Langasque (Fra) 76 73, Scott Jamieson 74 75, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 69 80, Laurie Canter 75 74, Sam Horsfield 78 71, Chris Hanson 79 70, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 72 77, Justin Walters (Rsa) 72 77
150 Nico Geyger (Chi) 77 73, Peter Hanson (Swe) 75 75, David Drysdale 73 77, Robert Rock 77 73, Connor Syme 75 75, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 77 73
151 Ross Fisher 79 72, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 75 76, Ashun Wu (Chn) 79 72, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 72 79, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 81 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 77 74, Romain Wattel (Fra) 76 75, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 76 75, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 80 71, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 76 75, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 77 74
152 Paul Waring 80 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 75 77, Aaron Rai 80 72, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 74 78, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 80 72, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 76 76, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 77 75, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 75 77, Julien Quesne (Fra) 75 77
153 Julien Guerrier (Fra) 81 72, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 79 74, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 77 76, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 76 77, Ryan Evans 80 73, Andres Romero (Arg) 73 80, Gavin Green (Mal) 76 77, Oliver Farr 79 74, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 74 79
154 Sebastien Gros (Fra) 73 81, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 81 73, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 80 74
155 Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 79 76, David Howell 74 81, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 79 76, Soomin Lee (Kor) 79 76
156 Rak hyun Cho (Kor) 78 78, Clement Sordet (Fra) 78 78
157 Victor Perez (Fra) 77 80
158 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 80 78, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 82 76, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 85 73, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 81 77, Daniel Imn (USA) 76 82, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 80 78, Bradley Neil 79 79
159 Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 79 80
160 Daniel Brooks 79 81
161 Adam Bland (Aus) 84 77, Chase Koepka (USA) 81 80
162 Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 83 79
165 Andrew Dodt (Aus) 81 84
169 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 85 84
Cut to take place at end of Round 2 for scores of no more than 146
