Pepperell and Brown lead the way at AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open

Eddie Pepperell is tied for the lead after two days of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. Sunshine Tour

England’s Eddie Pepperell and Denmark’s Hamish Brown share the lead heading into the weekend of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Mont Choisy Le Golf, with South Africa’s Christo Lamprecht just one shot behind them.

Pepperell maintained his place at the top of the leaderboard, climbing to eight-under par with a solid 70 on Friday. Brown joined him with a round of 68 that started with three birdies in his first five holes.

In the afternoon, Lamprecht then moved into contention on seven-under par with his round of 68 and was later joined there by Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen following his round of 70.

Pepperell in particular, is well aware that a weekend of opportunity awaits and the last two days have given him some much-needed confidence for the challenge ahead.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been able to feel really confident because it’s just been a lot of bad stuff in there at times. But I think what I’ve been working on with my swing the last few days does have legs and let’s hope it has weekend legs,” he said.

“The confidence goes quicker than it comes back, but we all know that if you’re a good player and you find something the confidence can come back quite fast. Then you’ve just got to keep that magic as long as you can. That’s the challenge for me to overcome this weekend.”

As co-leader, Brown is looking forward to a weekend of continuing the momentum of having just gained his DP World Tour card through the European Challenge Tour.

“It’s nice. There’s still a lot of golf left but it’s nice. I never doubted my ability to be good enough at this level. But it’s still nice to actually do it. I’m looking forward to the weekend,” he said.

The leaderboard remains extremely close going into the final 36 holes, with Lamprecht in particular keen to take advantage of a new mindset he has for this tournament.

“The mindset this week has changed. I just came from playing PGA Tour Q School in America and that was one of the most tense weeks of my career by far. So coming over here with my whole family, who I haven’t seen in a year, I’m treating it as a holiday week and just having fun. That’s been really helpful. It’s a holiday weekend now. That’s all it is. I’m just going to go out there and enjoy it,” he said.

The AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open is proudly supported by leading brands such as AfrAsia Bank, Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels, the Mont Choisy Group, the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA), the Economic Development Board (EDB) Mauritius, Rogers, IBL, Emtel, Heritage Resorts, Mastercard, Poncini, Range Rover, the Mauritius Golf Federation, Phoenix Beverages, Kohler, ticketbox.mu, DStv, Air Mauritius, C-Care, Mautourco, Häagen-Dazs, Ernie Els Wines, London No.1 Gin, Famous Grouse, Oaks and Ames, Graham Beck, Miko Coffee, TCL, CBE and SMAG.

Hamish Brown is tied for the lead after two days of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. Sunshine Tour

Scores

136 - Hamish Brown 68 68, Eddie Pepperell 66 70

137 - Jacob Olesen 67 70, Christo Lamprecht 69 68

138 - Louis de Jager 70 68, Andreas Halvorsen 68 70

139 - John Parry 70 69, Jacques Blaauw 68 71, Christiaan Burke 72 67, Dylan Naidoo 70 69

140 - Trevor Fisher Jnr 71 69, Oliver Lindell 71 69, Ricky Hendler 72 68, Ben Schmidt 69 71, Jovan Rebula 71 69, Wilco Nienaber 68 72, Jayden Schaper 68 72

141 - Jonathan Broomhead 71 70, Richard Sterne 75 66, Luke Brown 70 71, Renato Paratore 68 73, Andrea Pavan 69 72, Daniel Gale 76 65, Matthew Southgate 74 67, Wynand Dingle 72 69

142 - Freddy Schott 74 68, Davis Bryant 69 73, Ivan Cantero 69 73, Jean Hugo 71 71, Nicolai Von Dellingshausen 72 70, Thomas Aiken 73 69, Gary Hurley 74 68, Corey Shaun 74 68, Nikhil Rama 71 71, Angel Ayora 72 70, James Morrison 70 72

143 - Justin Walters 73 70, Sebastian Garcia 70 73, Wenyi Ding 76 67, Adri Arnaus 72 71, Tiger Christensen 71 72, Scott Jamieson 69 74, Brandon Robinson Thompson 73 70, Daniel Brown 75 68, Marcus Kinhult 72 71, David Law 74 69, Benjamin Hebert 69 74, Niklas Lemke 70 73

144 - Joakim Lagergren 71 73, JJ Senekal 69 75, Filip Mruzek 74 70, Casey Jarvis 71 73, Clement Sordet 74 70, Jason Roets 73 71, Tadeas Tetak 73 71, Deon Germishuys 70 74, Ryan Van Velzen 71 73, Joel Moscatel 71 73

145 - Kyle Barker 76 69, Alexander Levy 73 72, CJ du Plessis 75 70, Anthony Michael 70 75, Max Rottluff 74 71, Zihao Jin 73 72, Altin van der Merwe 73 72, Felix Mory 74 71, Justin Harding 73 72, Santiago Tarrio 73 72, Sean Crocker 72 73, Yurav Premlall 74 71, Keenan Davidse 74 71, Mikael Lindberg 70 75, Jack Senior 71 74

Missed the cut

146 - Hennie O'Kennedy 72 74, Louis Albertse 71 75, Albert Boneta 71 75, Jacques Kruyswijk 74 72, Antoine Rozner 74 72, Robin Williams 72 74, Marcel Schneider 71 75, Heinrich Bruiners 74 72, Lucas Bjerregaard 73 73, Oihan Guillamoundeguy 73 73, Malcolm Mitchell 75 71, Neil Schietekat 73 73, Sam Hutsby 74 72, Pierre Pineau 71 75, Benjamin Follett-Smith 71 75, Kieran Vincent 72 74, Peter Karmis 75 71, Jens Fahbring 76 70, Robson Chinhoi 75 71

147 - Quintin Wilsnach 77 70, Martin Couvra 75 72, Daniel van Tonder 72 75, Pieter Moolman 72 75, Rourke van der Spuy 76 71, Jean Bekirian 75 72, Bjorn Akesson 77 70, Marcel Siem 71 76, Tyran Snyders 75 72, Bastien Amat 79 68

148 - Ruan Korb 77 71, Michael Hollick 73 75, Ross Fisher 75 73, Oliver Bekker 77 71, Kristoffer Reitan 74 74, Graham van der Merwe 78 70, Wooyoung Cho 78 70, Nicolas Colsaerts 76 72, David Ravetto 73 75, Dayne Moore 74 74, Nicolai Kristensen 72 76

149 - Jonathan Goth-Rasmussen 76 73, Richard Mansell 81 68, Jean-Paul Strydom 76 73, Callum Mowat 73 76, Jbe' Kruger 75 74, Conor Purcell 78 71, Toto Thimba Jnr 74 75, Luke Jerling 72 77, Jacques P de Villiers 75 74, MJ Viljoen 73 76

150 - Rupert Kaminski 71 79, Tristin Galant 78 72, Jack Hawksby 77 73, Stuart Krog 77 73, Martin Vorster 74 76, Wil Besseling 80 70, Otto Van Buynder 74 76

151 - Hennie Otto 78 73, Dylan Mostert 74 77, Danie Van Niekerk 76 75, Pierre Pellegrin 71 80, Estiaan Conradie 78 73, Keegan Mclachlan 73 78, Inhoi Hur 79 72

152 - Alexander Frances 74 78, Albert Venter 78 74, Danny List 80 72

153 - Matthew Spacey 76 77, James Mack 74 79

154 - Gavin Green 78 76, Dan Erickson 78 76, Herman Loubser 78 76, Joshua Berry 79 75, Keith Horne 79 75, Jake Redman 81 73, Lyle Rowe 78 76

155 - Gregorio De Leo 75 80

157 - Werner Deyzel 77 80

158 - Keelan van Wyk 75 83, Gabriel Le Court De Billot 80 78

159 - Kyle De Beer 79 80

165 - Ethan Smith 89 76

RTD - MK Kim 75 RTD