It was a sensational second day at the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed for Dale Whitnell who fired a 61 (-11) and holds a six-stroke lead heading into the weekend.
The Englishman got off to a hot start rolling three birdies on his opening three holes, he then added further birdies on five, six and eight to make the turn in 30 (-6).
Whitnell continued his rich vein of form on the back nine with three consecutive birdies on holes 10 through 12 before he rolled in another on 15.
The 34-year-old finished in style with a final birdie on 18 to seal a round of 11-under, the lowest of his career on the DP World Tour, and sit at the top of the leaderboard with a total of 17-under-par after 36 holes.
“It was pretty good today,” said Whitnell, who is in search of a maiden DP World Tour title. “Obviously yesterday was nice, I had a bit of momentum after holing my last shot and I took it into today.
“I played nicely, hit the right shots at the right time, took my medicine if I needed to if I wasn’t in the right positions and holed a few putts which helped.
“I just want to emulate what I’ve done the first two days. Obviously, it would be pretty impressive to do that but I’ll just keep the same mindset.
“The golf course is gettable if you give it a bit of discipline, if you try and bite off a bit more then you can chew you will get punished so I’ve just got to keep that in mind going into the weekend.”
In outright second place on the leaderboard on 11-under-par is Germany’s Yannik Paul, who was the co-leader after the first round.
The German began the day at Ullna Golf Club on seven-under and opened with two birdies in his first three holes.
Paul then had a bogey sandwiched between birdies on holes seven, eight and nine before making two more birdies and one bogey on his back nine for a round of 68 (-4).
“I played well,” said the German. “Obviously got off to a good start which helped and just trying to stay patient, still a long tournament. Overall, in a good place.
“I putted well again, and I felt like I almost hit it a bit better today but couldn’t really take advantage of the par fives on the back nine, but other than that I am happy with the way I am playing.”
Scotland’s Richie Ramsay is in third place on 10-under-par having carded a bogey-free round of 66 (-6) on the second day in Sweden.
“Pretty much for 18 holes you had to check because the wind was moving all over the place,” said the Scotsman. “Particularly the front nine where you are in the trees and it’s kind of swirling.
“Then it feels like it is on your back and in your face, and I struggled a little bit. I made it through there and was grinding out pars and the front nine is probably playing the harder of the two this week.
“I made an unbelievable par on six, and then that was a nice little confidence booster, and then pretty much stiffed it on the next par three and was very steady throughout. Mindset was good, committed to my shots, you know it is the old simple things like keeping a positive attitude, hitting the shot and commit to it and let it go.”
America’s John Catlin is fourth on eight-under-par with South Africa’s Justin Walters and Søren Kjeldsen one shot further back.
Six players are in a tie for seventh place on six-under-par with eight players a shot further adrift on five-under-par including England’s Alice Hewson and France’s Emma Grechi.
Hewson produced the best round of the day by a female, posting a bogey-free 67 (-5) to move up the leaderboard at the halfway stage.
“I just played really really solid today,” said the Englishwoman, who came third in the 2021 edition of the tournament. “I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, had a lot of opportunities.
“I still left a few out there on the greens which is really encouraging going into the weekend. But overall, really solid golf. I feel like we’re getting to know the golf course really well now.
“There are some really hard holes out there for us, so it’s all about navigating ourselves through those and taking advantage of holes where we do have a bit of an opportunity. But we’ll stick to the game plan and try and give ourselves as many opportunities as we can.”
The cut fell at even par with 72 players making it through to the final two days of competition in Sweden.
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