Sweden’s Pelle Edberg grabbed a slender clubhouse lead midway through the second round of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Heritage Golf Club.
Edberg, who came through his 14th visit to Qualifying School last November, shot a five under par 66 to reach eight under for the week.
That was one ahead of South Africa’s Thomas Aiken, who also went round in 66, with overnight co-leaders Thorbjørn Olesen, Carlos Pigem and Jeunghun Wang part of a group tied for third on five under.
The 36 year old Edberg had birdied the second and eagled the long seventh to turn in 32, but dropped his only shot of the day at the tenth.
However, a birdie on the 14th sparked a late burst as he picked up further gains on the 15th and 18th – the latter after getting up and down from the edge of the green.
“It’s not a bad start,” said Edberg, who has had 13 top-ten finishes on The European Tour but is yet to win. “I’ve played pretty solid and pretty nice both days.
“I’ve taken advantage of the par fives and the driveable par fours. I’ve been up there on pretty much every hole, putting for eagle, and those holes are the key this week.
“I’ve been hitting driver on every hole because I’ve been hitting it so good. Maybe I should take three wood on some holes, but not this week because I’m going for it.
“I hit it quite far and if I can get it in play, I’m only going to have a wedge in, so it doesn’t matter if I’m in the rough. I’ve keeping it in play though and taking advantage of the par fives.”
Aiken also left his move until late, birdieing the sixth from 30 feet, the seventh from five feet and the ninth from three feet.
“You’ve got to play good golf and I think this week is more about not making too many mistakes rather than making a lot of birdies,” said the three-time European Tour winner.
“So I’ll try and keep mistakes off the card and I hope I can keep doing that for the weekend.
“The putter behaved the last nine holes today, but other than that. I putted pretty averagely. I hope it continues to behave over the weekend.”
As the afternoon session unfolded, Olesen resumed top spot on the leaderboard with five birdies in six holes from the fourth seeing the Dane turn in 32 and reach nine under par.
