Saturday 30 June 2018 20:50, UK
Marcus Kinhult produced the round of his career to open up a two-shot lead at the HNA Open de France as defending champion Tommy Fleetwood missed the cut.
Kinhult defied the difficulty of taking on one of the toughest courses on the European Tour at Le Golf National as he scorched to the turn in 30 before going on to return a six-under 65 which lifted him two clear of Chris Wood.
World No 2 Justin Thomas and Rolex Series specialist Jon Rahm are among the chasing pack as only 15 players completed 36 holes under par, but Fleetwood will have the weekend off after adding a 73 to his opening 74 to close on five over - one shot outside the cut mark.
Kinhult had started his first round with four straight bogeys before battling back to salvage an impressive 71, and he was in a class of his own over the outward half early on Friday morning.
The unheralded Swede eagled the third in between birdies at three and four, and he picked up further shots at the seventh and eighth to hit the top of the leaderboard on six under.
Kinhult rolled in another birdie chance at the 13th, although he then ran up a six at the long 14th before offsetting a birdie at 17 with his second blemish of the day at the final hole.
The world No 183 will be last out on Saturday alongside Ryder Cup hopeful Chris Wood, who recovered from a bogey-bogey start to his second round to make five birdies in a commendable 68 which got him to four under.
The Englishman ended the day in outright second when overnight-leader Bradley Dredge bogeyed the final two holes to hand in a 72 as he slipped into a share of third with Rahm, who fired an entertaining 69 despite making a double-bogey at 15 for the second day running.
The world No 5 hit back with a front-nine 33 that featured an eagle at the third, while Thomas is one stroke further adrift alongside Matt Fitzpatrick, Julian Suri and leading home player Gregory Havret.
Thomas was challenging for the lead when he carded his third birdie of the round at the 15th to get to four under, but he made a huge mistake at the penultimate hole when, after a perfect drive, he flew the green with a wedge and found the deep rough at the back.
The American hacked his ball out to the front fringe and chipped to five feet, but he pulled the putt for bogey and dropped into a tie for fifth with Fitzpatrick, whose 69 included five birdies, one bogey and a double-bogey at the 12th.
Tyrrell Hatton and Paul Dunne both fired excellent 67s to get into red numbers alongside Russell Knox (70), while Sergio Garcia and Thomas Pieters are within striking distance on level par heading into the weekend.
European Tour stalwarts Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell both endured water trouble at the last - twice in McDowell's case as he went from one under to three over following an ugly quadruple-bogey eight, while Poulter did well to limit the damage to a bogey as he made the cut on the number.
But Fleetwood left himself much to do after a woeful start, following bogeys at the first two holes with a double-bogey six at the fourth, although he did get back to four over with his third birdie of the day at 14 only to drop another shot at 16 which proved decisive in ending his defence of the title at the halfway stage.
