Calum Hill Leads AFRASIA BANK Mauritius Open At Halfway Stage

Scotland’s Calum Hill is the leader of the AFRASIA BANK Mauritius Open at the halfway stage after a second round of 64 at Heritage GC in Bel Ombre.

Calum Hill followed up his opening day 68 with the joint best round of the second day, an eight-under-par 64, to move him to -12, a shot clear of the field.

The Scot had a run of six birdies in eight holes from the 9th to the 16th to push himself up the leaderboard, making a move from outside the top ten. He holds an end of the day lead on the European Tour event for the first time in his career.

Three men sit in a tie for 2nd place, with Brandon Stone, Thomas Detry and Matthieu Pavon all having carded rounds of 67 and 66 over the first two days.

Stone carded his 66 on the opening day, backing that up with a 67 on Friday, while the two Europeans both shot 67 on Thursday followed by a 66 on day two.

Pavon went bogey-free in his six-under-par round, while Detry had three bogeys, seven birdies and an eagle in a very exciting round at Heritage.

Four men sit in a tie for 5th, including another two Frenchmen. Antoine Rozner posted a second round of 67, matching the scores of American Sihwan Kim, while Benjamin Hebert has gone 66, 68 to sit at -10. Scotland’s Connor Syme is the other man in that four-strong group.

The Danish duo of Rasmus Hojgaard and Soren Kjeldsen are three back, alongside South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout, with the former producing this piece of magic from the bunker on the 5th.

https://twitter.com/EuropeanTour/status/1202912566219091968

Bryce Easton moved up into a tie for 12th after posting a 64 on the second day, while Joel Sjoholm, the man that came to the AFRASIA BANK Mauritius Open in 2nd place on the Race to Dubai standings, carded a 66 on the second day to move to -7 and into a tie for 16th, alongside Grant Forrest and Darren Fichardt, among others.

Anthony Michael was the third man to shoot 68 on the second day, bouncing back from a Thursday 74 to move inside the cut line. He sits at -6, alongside Zander Lombard and Lorenzo Gagli.

Paul Lawrie, Jack Singh Brar, Thomas Pieters, and 2016 AFRASIA BANK Mauritius Open champion George Coetzee all made it through to the weekend, with the cut sitting at -3 after two days.

72 golfers are through to the final two rounds, with the likes of David Drysdale, Raphael Jacquelin, Alejandro Canizares and World No.66 Justin Harding all finishing under par, but not making the cut.

Nicolas Colsaerts, Edoardo Molinari and Mauritian amateur Pierre Pellegrin all failed to make the cut at Heritage, with 84 players missing out after two rounds.

Back at the top, it will be Calum Hill that leads the way to start the third round. The young Scotsman will tee off alongside Brandon Stone in the final group at 12:20 local time (GMT+4), while Thomas Detry and Matthieu Pavon will be in the penultimate pairing.

The action gets underway at 06:23 local time, with Justin Walters and Viraj Madappa kicking things off in the third round.

Leaderboard:

1 (-12): Calum Hill (SCO)

T2 (-11): Brandon Stone (RSA), Thomas Detry (BEL), Matthieu Pavon (FRA)

T5 (-10): Sihwan Kim (USA), Connor Syme (SCO), Antoine Rozner (FRA), Benjamin Hebert (FRA)

Selected Others:

T9 (-9): Rasmus Højgaard (DEN), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA)

T12 (-8): Renato Paratore (ITA), Bryce Easton (RSA)

T16 (-7): Joel Sjoholm (SWE), Grant Forrest (SCO), Darren Fichardt (RSA)

T23 (-6): Anthony Michael (RSA), Zander Lombard (RSA), Lorenzo Gagli (ITA)

Missed Cut:

T73 (-2): Alejandro Canizares (ESP), Dean Burmester (RSA), Raphael Jacquelin (FRA)

T85 (-1): David Drysdale (SCO), David Howell (ENG), Justin Harding (RSA)

T97 (-E): Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL), Hennie du Plessis (RSA)

T108 (+1): Clement Sordet (FRA), Jeff Winther (DEN)