SWEDE DANTORP'S BIRDIE BURST SEES HIM TAKE HALFWAY LEAD AT AVIEMORE

Jens Dantorp studies the line of a putt at Aviemore. Picture by courtesy of Getty Images(c)

 

                  

 

FROM EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

By NEIL AHERN

Jens Dantorp of Sweden finished with a flourish as four birdies in the 

final five holes earned him a six-under-par second round of 65 and 

the outright halfway lead at the Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by 

Macdonald Hotels and Resorts.

On another day of low scoring in perfect conditions at a sun-kissed 

Macdonald Spey Valley course, the two leaders from the first round - 

Byeong-hun An and Alan Dunbar - could not build on their course-

record opening rounds of 62 and got sucked back into the field, 

Dantorp capitalised to leapfrog the two former amateur stars.

The 24 year old did not look like threatening the leaderboard early on 

after he bogeyed the second hole to slip to five under following an 

opening round 65, but back to back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes 

got him moving in the right direction.

Another shot gained at the ninth took him to the turn in two under 

before a scorching finish, with four birdies in the last five holes, 

elevated him to the summit on 12 under par, one shot clear of Dunbar.

“The course suits my eye,” said Dantorp, who won the satellite 

Nordic Golf League’s Order of Merit by a record margin in 2011. 

“It’s really clear what you have to do, you can see the fairway clearly 

and the heather is almost purple so you can see where you need to put 

it.

“I haven’t really got myself into contention so far this year so 

hopefully this week will be different. This week I feel something good 

has happened and I hope I can bring that feeling into the weekend.”

The Swede spent much of last season rooming with Kristoffer 

Broberg during a Challenge Tour campaign in which the latter 

claimed four victories, the third of which earned him automatic 

promotion to The European Tour.

Dantorp believes he learned a lot from his compatriot, who is currently 75^th in The Race to Dubai, and is hoping to follow in his 

footsteps by graduating from the Challenge Tour.

“I would definitely like to follow him,” said the Malmo man. “I 

would love to play his type of game. He hits the majority of fairways, 

and then gets onto so many greens and that gives him so many chances.

“He makes so many one putts it is insane. He was always very good, 

in his age group he was the one who liked to practice the most and no 

one could beat him at his home course because he was so good. Now 

he is taking his game to different parts of the world and doing great 

and hopefully I can do the same.”

Dunbar, meanwhile, was not too disappointed with his two under par 

round of 69, despite having broken the course record on the opening 

day and relinquished the lead he shared with An.

“I think everybody knows that if you shoot a low score like a 62 it’s 

unlikely that you’re going to play as well the following day so I was 

happy to get round in two under,” said the 2012 Amateur Champion.

“I hit a lot of good shots and I don’t think I played much better or 

worse than the first round, I just holed some putts on the first day.

“Today was about going out and keeping it steady and solid and I did 

that. I made a couple of birdies to start off and that settled me in a 

little bit and I held on well. It’s tough coming in on that back nine. I 

just had one bogey on 15 but I had hit two good shots in there and 

three putted from the back so apart from that it was good.”

There were seven players a shot back on ten under par, including 

former US Amateur Champion An, Duncan Stewart of Grantown-

on-Spey only 15 minutes from this week’s venue and two-time 

Scottish Hydro Challenge champion Sam Walker.

 

ALL THE SECOND-ROUND SCORES

Par 142 (2x71)

130 J Dantorp (Swe) 65 65,

131 A Dunbar (Nir) 62 69,

132 A Pavan (Ita) 65 67, D Stewart (Sco) 65 67, G Cambis  (Fra) 66 66, B An (SKor) 62 70, T Remkes (Ned) 66 66, S Walker (Eng) 67 65, J Doherty  (Sco) 66 66, T Murray (Eng) 67 65,

133 E Dubois (Fra) 66 67, S Garcia (Esp) 63 70, D Frittelli (RSA) 65 68,

134 T Nørret (Den) 68 66, J Carlsson (Swe) 66 68, C Moriarty (Irl) 69 65, S Tiley (Eng) 67 67, T Hatton (Eng) 65 69,

135 J Huldahl (Den) 68 67, M Lorenzo-Vera  (Fra) 67 68, K Ferrie (Eng) 67 68, A Velasco (Esp) 66 69, N Lemke (Swe) 65 70

136 P Edberg (Swe) 69 67, G Wright  (Wal) 68 68, P Maddy (Eng) 68 68, B Koepka  (USA) 70 66, D Dixon (Eng) 68 68, T Sluiter  (Ned) 71 65, R Quiros  (Esp) 70 66

137 G Shaw (Nir) 69 68, O Whiteley (Eng) 72 65, G Dear (Sco) 68 69, G Hutcheon (Sco) 68 69, J McLeary  (Sco) 66 71, M Trappel  (Aut) 68 69, P McKechnie (Sco) 67 70, J Abbott (Eng) 70 67, R Kellett (Sco) 68 69

138 N McCarthy  (Eng) 69 69, J Guerrier  (Fra) 68 70, D Geminiani (Ita) 71 67, J Mommo  (Fin) 68 70, S Kim (Kor) 69 69, J Fahrbring (Swe) 70 68, A Forsyth (Sco) 69 69, T Pilkadaris (Aus) 69 69, B Hebert  (Fra) 67 71, O Wilson (Eng) 72 66, J Gibb (Eng) 68 70, L Kennedy  (Eng) 67 71, S Whiffin (Eng) 73 65

139 L Corfield  (Eng) 70 69, K Borsheim  (Nor) 68 71, A Gee  (Eng) 69 70, M Sell  (Eng) 69 70, J Lima  (Por) 67 72, J Garcia Pinto (Esp) 70 69, A Bernadet  (Fra) 69 70, C Russo (Fra) 66 73, E Saltman  (Sco) 71 68, J Watts (Eng) 65 74, L Saltman (Sco) 70 69, N Kearney (Irl) 70 69, S Parry  (Eng) 68 71, S Manley (Wal) 68 71, B Etchart  (Esp) 71 68, M Kerr  (Sco) 71 68, J Mikkelsen (Nor) 69 70, C Kelly (Sco) 68 71, S Dodd (Wal) 72 67

 

MISSED THE CUT

140 L Bjerregaard  (Den) 70 70, R Dinwiddie  (Eng) 71 69, G Murray  (Sco) 69 71, P Doherty (Sco) 67 73, N Ravano (Ita) 71 69, N Quintarelli (Ita) 71 69, N Fenwick (Sco) 68 72, R Russell (Sco) 69 71, P Oriol (Esp) 72 68, F Calmels  (Fra) 71 69, B Parker  (Eng) 72 68, A Johnston (Eng) 69 71, M Stewart (Sco) 74 66, G Houston (Wal) 72 68, D Law (Sco) 72 68, M Ford (Eng) 70 70, S Henderson (Sco) 71 69, P Dwyer (Eng) 73 67, L Goddard  (Eng) 71 69, W Besseling  (Ned) 76 64

141 J Lando Casanova  (Fra) 74 67, J Senior (Eng) 73 68, O Rozner  (Fra) 72 69, J Glennemo (Swe) 73 68, P Cutler (Nir) 69 72, L Bond (Wal) 70 71, F Colombo (Ita) 73 68, A Perrino  (Ita) 72 69, R Enoch  (Wal) 69 72, N Elvira  (Esp) 72 69, A Domingo (Esp) 71 70, F McGuirk  (Eng) 71 70

142 L Claverie (Esp) 71 71, D Perrier (Fra) 74 68, W Booth  (Sco) 74 68, Z Saltman (Sco) 71 71, P Relecom  (Bel) 71 71, J Moul  (Eng) 67 75, V Riu  (Fra) 70 72

143 F Bergamaschi (Ita) 69 74, S Hodgson (Eng) 72 71, M Haastrup  (Den) 75 68, Å Nilsson (Swe) 76 67, N Dougherty  (Eng) 72 71, J Hepworth (Eng) 70 73, C Brazillier  (Fra) 75 68, P Archer (Eng) 72 71, M Novy  (Cze) 72 71, T Pieters  (Bel) 70 73, M Haremza (Ger) 75 68, A McArthur  (Sco) 70 73

144 S Davis (Eng) 74 70, M Haines  (Eng) 73 71, C Gane (Eng) 73 71, J Ruth  (Eng) 73 71, T Haylock  (Eng) 71 73, C Ford (Eng) 75 69,

145 D Wuensche  (Ger) 71 74, S Hutsby  (Eng) 71 74, E Johansen  (Nor) 72 73, D Kemmer (USA) 71 74, D Vancsik (Arg) 73 72

146 Shaun McAllister (Sco) 75 71, P O'Keeffe  (Irl) 74 72, N Floren (Swe) 79 67

147 C Trahan (Sco) 76 71, T Fournier  (Fra) 72 75, B Chapellan (Fra) 74 73, J Howarth (Eng) 75 72, C Aguilar  (Esp) 74 73,

148 D Im (USA) 75 73

149 L Clarke  (Eng) 75 74, D Griffiths  (Eng) 72 77,

150 S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 81 69

151 D Wright (Eng) 77 74, O Bekker (RSA) 76 75, F Cromarty (Sco) 76 75, J Maurer  (Aut) 75 76

152 J Timmis (Eng) 73 79, S O'Hara  (Sco) 75 77

154 S Park (SKor) 78 76, R Saxton (Ned) 79 75

156 F Svanberg  (Sui) 78 78

157 D Waite (Eng) 80 77

** B Dredge (Wal) 74 RT

 

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS