Three birdies in his last four holes jumped Conor Purcell well into the top 20 of the Danish Golf Championship at Furesø Golf Club, Copenhagen.
With the cut falling at one under par, the Portmarnock man was facing another missed cut but a late burst of birdies on 15, 17 and 18 moved him right up into a tie for 18th and just a few shots outside of the top ten in Denmark.
At the top, Rasmus Højgaard leads by two strokes at the halfway point as he bids to win on home soil for the second time in his young career.
The 24-year-old, who became the first Danish winner of this event in 2023 at HimmerLand, carded a seven under par round of 65 at Furesø Golf Klub to move two clear of overnight leader Marco Penge, signing for a 12 under par total after 36 holes.
Starting from the tenth, Højgaard parred his opening six holes before finishing his front nine birdie, par, eagle to make the turn three under. He then rolled in four consecutive birdies from the first and added another at the par five sixth hole before dropping a shot on the eighth to cover his back nine in just 31 strokes.
“I’ve had two great days so I am looking forward to what the weekend brings” added Højgaard after his 65.
“To be honest, I didn’t feel like I was attacking that much. I was putting the ball in play off the tee. Hitting the middle of the green for the most part of the round. Towards the end of the first nine I made a birdie and an eagle and that sort of somewhat got the round going. After that I made quite a few birdies. I didn’t try to do too much out there. I was just striking the ball well, had an idea of where it was going and set up a lot of chances.
“You look at ten, 11, 12 and try not to do too much damage to yourself. If you are one over par on those holes that is not bad at all if you look at the scoring average for those holes. When you get to 13, you can start setting up some good chances and I managed to finish the first nine holes on a good note.”
Højgaard also sits in eighth place on the European Ryder Cup Rankings, just outside the top six automatic qualifiers, which will be finalised after the conclusion of next week’s Betfred British Masters. European Captain Luke Donald will then select his six remaining players on Monday, September 1.
Penge, who carded an opening round 64, made ground as he signed for a three-under-par round of 68 to reach double figures on ten under.
Canadian Aaron Cockerill sits in third place alone on seven under after a two-under par round of 69. Niklas Nørgaard, who will defend his first DP World Tour title at the British Masters, is the next best-placed Dane in a share of fourth on six under alongside Frenchman Adrian Saddier, who won the Italian Open in June, and Maximilian Steinlechner of Austria, who won his first HotelPlanner Tour title last month on home soil.
There was no joy for Dermot McElroy as he carded his second successive 74 to miss the cut by six.
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