Joshua Berry will take a two-stroke lead into the weekend of the UAE Challenge after posting a four under par round of 68 on day two at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club.
The Englishman, who started the day in a share of the lead, fired seven birdies in his first 11 holes to move clear of the rest of the field, and despite dropping three strokes in his final three holes, ended the day on 11 under par, two shots clear of South African Wilco Nienaber and Dane Hamish Brown.
The 18-year-old, who turned professional just over six months ago after securing playing privileges through DP World Tour Qualifying School, was delighted with his efforts over the opening two days.
“I’m really happy,” he said. “If you’d told me at the start of the day that I was going to shoot four under on the back of yesterday, I’d have taken it.
“Tee to green I’ve been quite solid. Today, I holed a couple more putts in the first twelve holes, but I’ve hit it well all week. Tomorrow, I’ll just go and do the same things but try to finish the round off a little bit better than I did today.”
Berry, who was five shots clear at one point on the second day before dropping three shots on the back nine in blustery afternoon conditions, highlighted the difficulty of scoring on day two at Saadiyat Beach.
“I teed off early yesterday, so I didn’t get much wind”, he said. “This afternoon was different and you had holes downwind and into wind.
“It’s quite firm out there, so you can hit good drives into bunkers, and then if you get a bad lie it’s quite tough.”
Frenchman Alexander Levy recorded a second successive round of 68 to move into fourth place on eight under par, while Swiss Benjamin Rusch, Dane Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Northern Irishman Dermot McElroy share fifth place on seven under par.
Seven players are one shot further back in eighth place, including Spaniard Javier Sainz, Dutchman Kiet van der Weele and Finn Tapio Pulkkanen.
The third round gets under way at 7:30am local time, with Berry teeing off alongside Nienaber and Brown at 9:30am.
