Joakim Haeggman continued his impressive showing at the Legend Tour Trophy at Hanbury Manor Marriot Hotel & Country Club with a four-under par round of 68, leaving him out on his own at the top of the leaderboard on ten under par.
The Swede is one shot clear of Greig Hutcheon (-9) and two shots clear of the eight-under par trio of Stephen Dodd, Bradley Dredge and Emanuele Canonica.
Haeggman is making a habit of scoring birdies in this Legends Tour event, sinking six of them on day two just as he did in the first round of play.
Two of his six birdies were on the 17th and 18th holes, countering bogies on the previous two holes and they left him on ten under as the outright clubhouse leader.
The overnight leader after the first two rounds reflected on how he finished play today, as well as how he intends to approach the decisive round.
“You birdie 17 and 18 and it’s happy days coming off,” he said. “You really want to be in that last group so you can control the field. It’s always better to be one ahead than one behind, obviously.
“I’ll have plenty of energy and momentum going into tomorrow. There’s a lot of good players and a lot of experience on the top of this leaderboard. It’s going to be a heck of a game tomorrow, but I’m prepared, I’m ready and I’m playing well. I’m looking forward to it.”
Grieg Hutcheon is the nearest challenger to Haegmann after matching the clubhouse leader’s round of 68. His scoring was almost identical to Haeggman’s – playing a bogey-free front nine and following it up with an up and down two under par back nine.
The tour newbie, who earned his tour card in January and the player who is ranked 14th in the Order of Merit rankings, is in a great position to earn a tour triumph going into round 3.
The threesome of Dodd, Dredge and Canonica all had below-par rounds and will certainly see an opportunity to make a charge on the final day of play to claim a tour win.
The final round tee times throw up a number of interesting groups, and Haeggman’s three-ball group includes the clubhouse leader as well as Adilson Da Silva (-3) and Clark Dennis (E) (tee-off at 11:25 am.)
The Welsh duo of Dodd (-8) and Dredge (-8) have played with each other the first two days and are joined by Roger Chapman (-7) for the last day certainly a group to keep an eye on as all members this threesome could make a run.
The English duo of Greg Owen (-6) and David Gilford (-5) are also within striking distance of Haegmann and they tee off together alongside Swede Patrick Sjöland (+1) at 10:30 am.
The opening group of the final day begin their rounds at 8:30 am.
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