Oliver Farr is vying for a maiden European Challenge Tour title at the Turkish Airlines Challenge after a five under par second round of 67 earned him the lead going into the weekend at National Golf Club.
In perfect conditions at the pristine Belek venue on Turkey’s south coast, the 26 year old reeled off seven birdies to move to the top on five under par, despite a poor start to his second round.
Farr bogeyed the tenth – his first – to drop to one over for the tournament, following a level par opening round 72, but a birdie at the par three 11th was a much more accurate representation of what was to come.
Four birdies in the space of six holes from the 15th to the second put him right in the mix at the top of the leaderboard and while his second bogey of the day came at the sixth hole, he picked up two more shots at the seventh and ninth to move one clear of first round leader Guillaume Cambis.
“It was just one of those rounds where I hit a lot of good shots, which you have to do around this course,” said Farr, who won the satellite EuroPro Tour Rankings last year. “If you’re slightly off you can be punished. I hit two bad shots today and I had two bogeys from them.
“Other than that I was really in control and I holed some good putts, so five under is a score I'm really happy with out there.
“I think the greens yesterday afternoon were very baked out and firm so I found it hard to control the shots. My chipping was quite good yesterday to shoot level but today I had a lot of wedge approach shots, which was nice, and I controlled them really well.
“I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend. I haven’t looked at the scoreboards much today but five under is pretty good after two rounds so I'm happy with that.
“I've just got to continue what I did today and that’s my goal. I might work on a couple of things before the third round but barring that, just try what I did for the first two days.
“It’s a course I do like, I like the tree-lined courses and I feel it suits my game a little bit better than the wide open courses.
“You’ve still got to hit good shots. It doesn’t matter how you plot it out you’ve got to hit the right shots at the right time and luckily I did that today.”
Frenchman Cambis signed for a level par round of 72 and the Frenchman had a birdie at the 18th to thank after a one under front nine was soon followed by a double-bogey at the 12th.
The Parisian remained at four under par and, while he was disappointed not to make any progress on day two, he was happy to be still in the hunt for the title going into moving day in Turkey.
“I played pretty good from the tee again,” said the 25 year old, who caddied for a friend in a Ladies European Tour event at this venue last week. “I missed about six or seven greens with a gap wedge, so that made it impossible to get the four or five under round I wanted.
“With those kinds of shots, level par is OK. I was lucky once or twice and that helped me a little, but I missed a lot of makeable putts too. It could have been better and it could have been worse, that’s how I would sum up that round.
“I'm still up there on the leaderboard so that’s a good thing to take from today. I'm still on contention so I hope I can get my first win but I have 36 holes to plays. It will be a long weekend.”
Englishman Dave Coupland and Scott Arnold were a shot further back in tied fifth having signed for rounds of 70 and 71, respectively.
Germany’s Bernd Ritthammer, meanwhile, completed a remarkable comeback as he followed his six over opening round of 68 with a six under par 66, a course record, to move to within five of the lead.
