Mathieu Fenasse posted a six under par 66 on Day Two of the Prague Golf Challenge and will take a one-stroke lead into the weekend after reaching 11 under par at the halfway stage.
The Frenchman carded seven birdies and a single blemish to seize control at Prague City Golf after overhauling clubhouse leader Jonas Kölbing who earlier set the target at ten under par following a three under 69 on Day Two.
Five players shared the first round lead in the Czech capital but scoring proved to be difficult early on the second day with sporadic rain and high winds limiting the field’s capacity to make gains, in contrast to the first day.
However, after last week’s Challenge de España winner Antoine Rozner shot up the leaderboard with a seven under par 65 to reach nine under, Fenasse followed in his countryman’s footsteps by becoming the man to catch.
“I’m very happy about my first two days,” Fenasse said. “I played very solid in my first two rounds and I’m very happy to have the lead for now, but we’ll see what happens in the next two days.
“I was rooming with Antoine last week so I that gave me a bit of extra motivation this week. I know Antoine, his mentality is good on the course and I think my mentality is good on the course too. I’ve just got to play my game and I feel I can do it too.”
The 27-year-old is into his third full season on the European Challenge Tour and he believes his game is in a good place, despite his results in the opening tournaments of the campaign not necessarily reflecting that.
“I’ve been playing well in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “The first two tournaments didn’t really show where I think my game is.
“This week, everything is good. I’m driving well, I’m hitting my irons pretty good, I’m putting well, chipping well and if you play well, you make birdies and that’s what I’ve been doing in the last two days.
“I think your irons need to be pretty sharp around here. You have to hit it close to the pin because the greens are very undulating. You have to make the nine to 15-footers to make some birdies and that’s what I’ve been doing pretty well in the first two rounds.”
Joint first round leader Wil Besseling currently sits in tied third alongside Rozner after following his opening 65 with a second round 70, while another Frenchman, Robin Roussel, and English trio David Bland, Laurie Canter and Billy Spooner sit in tied fifth on seven under par.
Benjamin Poke, Cormac Sharvin and Darius van Driel complete the top ten on six under par after 36 holes.
The third round will begin at 8.00am local time on Saturday May 11, with 64 players surviving the cut of level par or better.
