Lauri Ruuska retained his lead at the top of the Dormy Open leaderboard by posting a three under par round of 69 on day two at Österåkers Golfklubb.
The Finn, who led by two overnight, took advantage of calm early morning conditions to reach 11 under par, two ahead of three-time European Challenge Tour winner Stuart Manley, who is second on nine under.
The 28-year-old made a strong start to his second round with three birdies in his opening seven holes, however a double-bogey at the ninth saw him slip down the leaderboard. Ruuska recovered brilliantly to card a pair of birdies coming in and regain pole position heading into the weekend.
“I played really solid apart from one bad hole,” he said. “I started with a birdie which was nice before adding two more birdies on six and seven but on the ninth I hit a couple in the water and made double-bogey.
“Luckily, I managed to regroup and get those shots back with a couple of birdies on the back nine. I’m in a great position heading into the weekend.
“It’s great to get out early because it is very warm now,” he said. “I think the wind is picking up in the afternoon, so I managed to finish before the conditions got more difficult.
“The pin positions were tougher today and I had to be coming from the fairway if I wanted to attack the flag. If I missed the fairway I would just play for the par and move on.”
Englishman Daniel Brown carded a four under par round of 68 to move into a tie for third alongside German Max Schmitt and Swede Per Längfors on eight under par, while Sweden’s Mikael Lindberg occupies sixth on seven under par.
Austrian Niklas Regner recorded a hole-in-one at the fourth hole with a nine iron from 178 yards on his way to a three under par round of 69.
