REFAH, Bahrain (AP) — At the halfway point of the Bahrain Championship on Friday, Dylan Frittelli birdied his final hole for a 4-under 68 and shared the lead with Jesper Svensson and Joel Gerbach.
The trio finished with a score of 9-under 135 after two rounds at Royal Golf Club. He shares a one-shot difference with Alejandro Del Rey (70 RBIs), and there are five other players within one stroke.
Frittelli, the South African who hit the winning putt when Texas won the NCAA title in 2012, sank a 4-foot birdie on No. 9 and finished the round with four other birdies and one bogey.
Svensson shot a 65, his lowest round of the day, in windy conditions as the 27-year-old Swede seeks his first European Tour title.
Frittelli had a tough season on the PGA Tour in 2023, missing the cut or withdrawing in 23 of his 27 starts.
“I’m very excited to be back in contention,” said Frittelli, 33. “I’m really proud of the way I played. I was able to get it on the fairway and on the green.”
Play was halted due to low light with three players at the bottom of the leaderboard still not completing the final hole.
Overnight leader Tom Vaillant’s 73 points moved him into a tie for fifth with Julien Guerrier, Jamie Donaldson, Harrison Endicott and Okie Strydom.
Rasmus Heigaard, ranked 70th, shot a 73, putting him five strokes behind the leader. He was second in Ras Al Khaimah last week.
The Bahrain Championship is a new tournament to the European Tour’s schedule and will be the fourth of five consecutive weeks starting in the Middle East in 2024. The tour ended in Bahrain in 2011 as the debut of the now-defunct Volvo Tournament of Champions.
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