November 5: Calle Strandberg managed to keep his overnight lead on one shot intact at the halfway stage of the US$125,000 Egypt Golf Series – Red Sea Open, adding a five-under par 67 to his 66 on Tuesday.

At Sokhna Golf Club, Strandberg, who is looking for his first win as a professional, tallied 11-under 133 for the 36 holes, one better than India’s Karandeep Kochhar (66), who shot the low round of the day, and Laos’ Thammasack Bouahom, who added a second consecutive round of 67.

Thailand’s Weerawish Narkprachar (67) was in solo fourth place at 135, followed by Korea’s Minhyeok Yang (68) at -8. Russia’s Egor Eroshenko (69), Sweden’s Erik Jonasson (68) and Italy’s Andrea Saracino (69) were tied sixth at 137.

Strandberg made seven birdies – one more than in his opening round – but he also made two bogeys compared to his bogey-free effort on Tuesday.

“It was a good round. Had two three-putts for bogeys, but I had seven birdies as well. The game was almost similar to yesterday, except for the two three-putts. I changed my driver for the day, but it’s still not the best. It’s getting there. It’s good to have some margins out here on the course as the fairways is pretty wide,” said the Swede, who is a regular on the Nordic Golf League.

Karandeep Kochhar of India. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

Kochhar had finished his round on a high with a hole-in-one yesterday, but it was a different emotion on Wednesday after making his only bogey of the day on the 18th hole.

“I think that was pretty solid, except the end when I made my only bogey of the day on the last hole, which was a bit of a sour way to finish. But that’s fine. I had good shots, but just got a bit unlucky there,” said Kochhar, who is hoping to improve from his 20th place on the Asian Development Tour Order of Merit and get in contention for one of 10 Asian Tour cards on offer to the top-10 players.

“I hit the ball well and was aggressive. There wasn’t much wind today, but on this golf course, it’s important to keep giving yourself chances, because it’s hard to make putts here.

“When I got to seven-under, I knew I was close to the lead, but I didn’t really think about it at any point. I just continued to play my own game. I think the hardest thing in golf is to stay out of your own way, and I thought I did that very well.”

Thammasack, who has his father on his bag this week, is hoping to win his first title as a professional and did not harm his chances with another solid round.

“Started really well and made three straight birdies. I holed a lot of putts today. So, definitely putted a lot better than it did yesterday, and hit a lot of greens,” said Thammasack.

“I think the key thing on these greens is to just have good emotional control, because you are going to miss a lot of putts on these greens. You need to be able to move on to the next one.

The US$125,000 Egypt Golf Series – Red Sea Open is the second successive week the Asian Development Tour is in Egypt after last week’s Egyptian Open.