Chris Hanson surged into a three-shot lead as the second round of the weather-delayed D+D REAL Czech Masters was completed on Saturday morning.
Play was suspended for the day at 2.20pm on Friday due to a flooded course as heavy rain continued to batter Albatross Golf Resort, with Hanson having just birdied his first hole of the day to sit two shots off the lead.
The Englishman made a further six birdies and a single bogey upon the resumption to sign for a 66 and move to ten under, three shots ahead of countryman Lee Slattery who completed his round on Friday morning.
Another Englishman, James Morrison, was then at six under after a 70, a shot clear of Chilean Felipe Aguilar, South African Haydn Porteous and Swede Pontus Widegren.
Hanson finished sixth at the Trophée Hassan II and despite having made just three from 11 cuts since, was in sparkling form on Saturday.
The delay clearly had little effect on him as he birdied the 11th straight out of the gate and added further gains on the 15th, 17th, first and second. A bogey on the fifth threatened to derail his progress but he bounced back straight back with another gain to restore his cushion.
"I played really nice today," he said. "I said yesterday you need to stay patient, there are plenty of chances on that golf course if you are in position off the tee and thankfully I took them well today.
"Obviously we were lucky with the side of the draw, I was unlucky last week and lucky this week so it’s swings and roundabouts with how you deal with it I guess so really lucky today.
"It’s what you practise for. I’m just trying to stay really committed and just accept what happens out there, you know you’re going to hit some bad shots but you’re also going to hit some good ones, so keep smiling and really enjoy the challenge.
"I led going into the last round of Morocco last year so I’ve had those sort of feelings but there is no getting away from it - it’s another new feeling - but its only two rounds into a tournament so I’ll see how I go and I’ll just try to keep doing what I’m doing."
On Friday, Slattery made gains on the tenth, 11th, a hat-trick from the 13th and another birdie on the 16th to match Eddie Pepperell's back nine 30 from Thursday.
An approach to eight feet on the second handed Slattery the lead on his own and when he put his tee-shot on the par three seventh to similar range, he was eight under and looking at equalling the course record.
A bogey on the next dashed those hopes but his 65 was still the best completed round of the day by some four shots by a man whose wife is currently a week overdue with the couple's second child.
Morrison had parred his first two holes before the suspension and while he returned to bogey the 14th, he bounced back with birdies on the 16th, fourth and ninth to sign for a 70.
Porteous was one over for his round when play was stopped and while he dropped another shot on the 14th, he added birdies on the fourth, seventh, ninth, 11th and 15th.
Aguilar made three birdies and two bogeys in his remaining 17 holes, with playing partner Widegren making two birdies and two bogeys.
Frenchman Grégory Bourdy and Swede Jens Dentorp were then at four under, a shot clear of South Africans Jaco Ahlers, Dylan Frittelli and Zander Lombard, English trio Tom Lewis, Callum Shinkwin and Jonathan Thomson, and Frenchman Clément Berardo.
