Davis Bryant shines with blistering 63 to move two clear in Munich

Davis Bryant fired the lowest round of the tournament to lead by two shots at the halfway stage of the BMW International Open.

The American enjoyed an eventful second round which was kickstarted by a stunning ace at the 12th, his third, when he holed his nine iron at the 166-yard par-three. It was the 12th hole-in-one of the DP World Tour season.

The 25-year-old is making only his tenth DP World Tour start but he caught the attention of his rivals as he added nine birdies to his early eagle and dropped two shots in his entertaining 63 to sit at 12 under at Golfclub München Eichenried.

Norway's Kristoffer Reitan climbed into contention with a flawless 65 to reach ten under, with English pair Jordan Smith and Daniel Brown alongside Japan's Yuto Katsuragawa at nine under during a second round which was delayed by one hour and 45 minutes due to lightning in the Munich area.

"I don’t really know what happened today. I think the ace kind of jumpstarted things," said Bryant, who is following up a top-ten finish at last week's Italian Open.

"I don’t feel like I’ve played my best golf since Q School, to be honest. I had some time off over the holidays, played some HotelPlanner Tour events to start the year, and feel like my game is starting to get back to where I want it to be.

"Just super pleased with last week's finish, the first two rounds here, and then today, catching lightning in a bottle and just rolling with it.

"Not really thinking too far ahead. Everyone in the field can win this event. We’ve still got two rounds to go."

Bryant made a fast start on Friday when thanks to a birdie at the 11th before his brilliant ace at the next saw him move to six under.

Birdie putts from 12 and 20 feet respectively at the 14th and 15th saw the World Number 576 sit one adrift of the leading trio of Smith, Brown and Katsuragawa at eight under.

He slipped back briefly with a bogey at the 17th but instantly returned to eight under with a tap-in birdie at the 18th, only to drop his second shot of the round at the first.

However, he only looked up from then as successive birdies from the second saw him join the clubhouse leaders at nine under.

His putter was on fire and when he drained a 32-foot putt for birdie at the fifth, he was at ten under alongside Reitan, who had rolled in his seventh birdie at the last to set the new clubhouse mark.

Bryant would not be stopped though. He found the cup from the seventh fringe to move into the solo lead and when he rolled in his ninth birdie of the day at his final hole, he extended his advantage to two shots.

Reitan, who won the Soudal Open in May, continued his rich vein of form with his blemish-free second round in Bavaria.

The 27-year-old got on the birdie trail at the fifth and sixth before adding further gains at the 11th, 13th, 14th, 16th and the last to set the initial clubhouse mark of ten under, which was only surpassed by Bryant.

Smith, Brown and Katsuragawa are three shots at drift, with Scotland's Scott Jamieson, American Ryggs Johnston, Spaniard David Puig and Italy's Francesco Laporta at eight under.