Welshman Bradley Dredge moved into a one shot lead after the second round of the Scandinavian Masters by Carlsberg with an eight under par 63 at Kungsängen near Stockholm. Dredge finished on 13 under par total of 129, with Swede Pierre Fulke (63) and England’s Barry Lane (66) hard on his heels on 130.
Another Swede, Henrik Nystrom, and Frenchman Jean-Francoi Remesy share fourth place on 131, 11 under par, with first round leader Marc Cayeux a further stroke behind alongside Norway’s Henrik Bjornstad.
Dredge, 32, one of The European Tour's most consistent performers, missed out on a golden victory chance last Sunday in the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship of Europe. After being among the front runners in Hamburg, disappointing putting over the final two rounds left him having to settle for a share of fifth place.
With only the 2003 Madeira Island Open title in his credit column on The European Tour, Dredge felt it was time for change and spent three days reworking his putting routine before trying again for his second title.
"Last week was a good chance to win and it was disappointing," he said. "But I took the positives out of it and tried to learn from my mistakes, mainly my putting routine.
"I've looked at videos and I seem to stand a long time over the ball. It's worked for years and years, but if I want to start winning tournaments I have to change that. I have to let it happen, have a last look at the hole, keep the image of it in my mind, and then go, rather than force it in."
Lane, who was one shot off the lead after the first round, found himself similarly placed at the halfway stage with a second round of 66 to follow his fine opening 64. The Englishman admitted he missed a “load of chances” in the glorious Swedish sunshine and said: “It’s difficult going out knowing that 13 under led the tournament, but you can only do your best.
“I set a target of 22 under par for the week and I reckon that would be alright. It’s important, even with bad weather forecast, that we try to finish the tournament. Everybody wants to play the full event.”
Fulke, who has played only a limited campaign in 2005, matched Dredge’s morning 63 thanks to an eight birdie haul and no errors. He explained his absence from the Tour by saying: “I have a lot of design projects going on, so I took eight weeks off after the Qatar Masters to deal with those projects and then play golf in the summer.
“It is working well. I haven’t done things properly for the last couple of years – including my golf – so I’ve tried something different this year to see if it works. I actually think I am playing better than I’ve ever played at the moment.
“It’s fantastic playing at home. I have my own ‘rant a crowd’ of about 20 friends out here watching and cheering me on. It’s really nice.”
Bjornstad, meanwhile, is hoping to nail down a European Tour card after coming back from a year away from golf, during which he became a carpenter. He turned his back on the game that was torturing him, walking away from the Tour last June. Six months practising the trade he had learned at school gave him a fresh outlook on life.
A six under par 65 in the second round, to take him to fifth place, three strokes off Bradley Dredge's lead, has proved to Bjornstad that the change has done him good.
"I just quit in the middle of last season because I had hit the wall," said Bjornstad after an eight birdie round which was a far cry from the form that had left him languishing in 203rd place on last year's European Tour Order of Merit when he walked out on golf.
"For six months I worked as a carpenter and it was great doing something else, great to get away and get some fresh thoughts. It was a tough choice but the right one and now I feel really refreshed playing my first tour event in over a year. What I have to do now is to keep this up and try to get my card back."
Bjornstad had been Norway's rising star in 2002 when he finished third in this event but he had to resort to an invitation this week to try to resurrect his career.
South Africa’s Martin Maritz won a Volkswagon Passat 20 FSI 150 Highline worth SK 250,000 after achieving a hole in one at the sixth hole. He used a nine iron from 164 yards. Maritz, who was one over par at the time, then birdied the last three holes to make the cut on 138, four under par.
Compiled by Reuters and European Tour Staff
