Lee Westwood shot to the top of the leaderboard at the Nordea Masters on Thursday with an eight-under-par 64.
Westwood carded eight birdies in a bogey-free second-round performance to take his total to 12 under par, three shots clear of local hope Peter Hanson (68), Scot Lloyd Saltman (64) and Spaniard Carlos Del Moral (67).
Starting at the 10th, he quickly rattled off consecutive birdies at the 12th and 13th before adding three more in a row from the 16th. After the turn, he added two more birdies at the fourth and fifth before reaching the fringe of the ninth green in two and two-putting for his eighth and final birdie.
Westwood also won this event in 2000 and said after his round: "I've always enjoyed coming to Sweden, obviously winning here for the first time in 1996 gave me an affinity.
"And then I won again in 2000 when I won the money list so I've had a lot of success in Sweden and it's somewhere I enjoy coming to."
Of his performance on the day, he added: "I played well. I played nicely yesterday but today I played a little bit better.
"I'm getting to know the course a little bit better every day and it was there for the taking this morning. There was not alot of wind and the greens were pretty pure.
"I'm putting the ball well and rolling it nicely on the greens which gives you confidence. I hit it pretty close so I gave myself alot of chances."
Hanson, playing with Westwood, had a double bogey at the 11th, but recovered with three birdies in his next four holes before adding four more birdies over the closing stretch.
"I didn't strike the ball as well as I would have hoped and 68 was a good result," said the Swede.
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