European Tour

Van Rooyen on repeat in Scotland

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A pair of 64s has South African Erik van Rooyen sharing the lead at the halfway mark of the Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.

Van Rooyen continues to thrive in the big events as he moved top alongside Lee Slattery and Bernd Wiesberger in North Berwick on Friday.

Safe in the knowledge that he has already booked his place at The Open next week, the World No 89 opened with a birdie and added a second two holes later. His lone drop of the day – a bogey at the 13th – was offset immediately with a birdie at 14 before he birded 16 for the second straight day.

The turn was kind as he opened with a birdie before matching his opening round with birdies at four and five.

Birdie No 8 came at the eighth before he closed with a par to settle into his post-round routine safe in the knowledge that he would have a very, very late tee time on Saturday.

Lurking in a share of 11th is Compleat Golfer playing editor Brandon Stone, who for the second day made just a single bogey. The defending champion was four under through eight relying on some exquisite play from tee to green.

A stumble at nine was forgotten quickly as he rattled off four birdies in his next six holes.

Bradley Dredge made the first hole-in-one of his 20 year European Tour career at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open to win a BMW X7.

The Welshman is a veteran of 475 appearances and chose one of the biggest stages of all to make his first ace, lighting up the Rolex Series as he holed a five iron from 200 yards on the 17th.

There were two holes-in-one on day one at the 15th at The Renaissance Club but they did not bring the spectacular prize that Dredge will be driving home – a BMW G07 X7 xDrive40i M Sport.