Scottish Open 2019: Wiesberger, Van Rooyen & Slattery share halfway lead

Austria's Bernd Wiesberger carded a course-record 61 at The Renaissance Club to take a share of lead at the halfway point of the Scottish Open.

The 33-year-old is 14 under going into Saturday's third round, with England's Lee Slattery and South Africa's Erik van Rooyen on the same total.

Wiesberger posted 10 birdies and dropped just one shot in a stellar round.

“I haven't shot 10 under in a pro event before, so that was a bonus,” he said.

“It's just going with the flow and things worked out really well.”

Emerging star Van Rooyen, meanwhile, conjured eight birdies and dropped just one shot to roar into contention.

The 29-year-old enjoyed a top-20 finish in his first Open Championship at Carnoustie last year and enjoys playing in Scotland.

“I love it. It's the links, it's the people, it's the weather,” said Van Rooyen.

“Days like this kind of remind me of Cape Town a bit, where my wife and I lived for a few years – the winter in Cape Town. The weather's great when it's like this and it brings a positive vibe and I feed off that.”

While Wiesberger and Van Rooyen have already qualified for the Open at Royal Portrush next week, Slattery has not and is now well placed to claim one of the three vacant places for the top 10 finishers.

His last European Tour triumph came in 2015 and the Southport player says he is living up to his Twitter bio, which reads ‘practice in silence and let your results make the noise'.

“It's always been a little bit like that,” said Slattery. “This year, I put a gym in my house and a putting green indoors, so I've just been working really hard on those aspects.

“My wife's been in the gym a lot and she's loving it too. We've just become a fit family.”

Another highlight of the second round was a hole-in-one for Welshman Bradley Dredge at the par three 17th, which won him a car.

Lurking two shots behind the leaders are 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson and Italian Nino Bertasio on 12 under.

Others safely through to the weekend are Ian Poulter (-10) and Rory McIlroy (-8), but 2015 Scottish Open winner Rickie Fowler's four-under tally was not good enough to make the cut.

The leading Scot among the 15 home players is Kinross's Calum Hill, who came through a 36-hole qualifier at nearby Longniddry last week.

He is 10 under, while other home favourites Scott Jamieson (-8), Grant Forrest (-7), Richie Ramsay (-7) and David Drysdale (-5) also progress.