Rasmus Højgaard pleased home fans and helped boost the Ryder Cup push by opening a two-shot lead at Danish golf championship on Friday.
Højgaard added a 7-under 64 to the opening 66 of the Fureso Golf Club, leading at the midpoint of the home tournament.
Dane, 24, currently ranked 8th on Team Europe’s Ryder Cup Points list, outside of the automatic top six spots, with Luke Donald taking six captain picks on August 24th after the Bette Red British Masters.
“You raise each other a little,” Hodgerd said of Danish fans. “I obviously felt good there. I was trying to make as many birdies as possible and I wanted them to cheer me on and keep going as long as possible.
“When I made that annoying bogey at 8 o’clock, it was a bit dead in the end, but there was a great atmosphere there.”
Starting on hole 10, Højgaard started with six straight pars before hitting an approach shot up to 3 feet before backing up a birdie on par 5 No. 18.
Five birdie runs on the opening six holes on his back nine gave him top breathing space.
Højgaard’s lonely bogey on No. 8 won him a perfect course record and instead matched Marco Penge’s first round score on Thursday.
“I didn’t try to do that much,” said Højgaard, who won the tournament in 2023.
Penge is back in two shots at 10 after a 68 consisting of 68 birdies and three bogeys.
Adrien Saddier, Maximilian Steinlechner and Niklas Norgaard are in the 6-under group.
Scotland’s Mark Warren defeated the leaderboard in the disappointing second round 74 after opening 66.
