Trio tied for halfway lead at Scottish Open

Bernd Wiesberger, Lee Slattery and Erik Van Rooyen share the lead after 36 holes of the 2019 Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club. 

On another day of low scoring in East Lothian, Austrian ace Wiesberger shot a best-of-the-day 61 to join England’s Slattery and Van Rooyen of South Africa at the top of the leaderboard on 14-under-par.

The 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson and Italy’s Nino Bertasio are their closest challengers on 12-under, with Justin Thomas amongst a group of five players a further shot adrift.

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The Scottish challenge is currently spearheaded by Kinross ace Calum Hill, who is bunched together with the likes of Ian Poulter, Edoardo Molinari, Thomas Pieters, Matt Fitzpatrick and defending champion Brandon Stone on ten-under.

Rory McIlroy is currently tied for 30th on eight-under.

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With unseasonably heavy downpours having softened the course and almost no wind to speak, scores have been spectacularly low to this point, with 138 of the 154 players to have completed two rounds no worse off than level-par.

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The cut fell at five-under, which was one too many for a trio of Scots – Marc Warren, Robert MacIntyre and Stephen Gallacher – as well as Rickie Fowler and Ross Fisher.

Other big names to get an unwanted weekend off include Russell Knox, Jimmy Walker, Padraig Harrington and Branden Grace.  

Elsewhere, Welsh pair Bradley Dredge and Stuart Manley both had holes-in-one on day two, bringing the total aces for the week to four.