Albatross helps Lloyd Saltman soar up Swedish leaderboard

The sparkling effort was sparked by an albatross 2 at Saltman’s third hole of the day – the 12th, where he holed a 3-iron from 237 yards.

“It was straight at it,” said the Scot afterwards. “I heard a little clap and then there was a big roar as I started walking, so I knew it must have gone in.” It helped Saltman move to nine under for the tournament – three shots behind leader Westwood after he also signed for a 64.

“I felt really comfortable out there and hit some nice shots,” added the 2005 Open Silver Medal winner. “I got the putter working better as well today. It is my lowest round on the European Tour, so you can only take confidence from that.”

Peter Whiteford, who is four under after a 69, and Gary Orr, two shots further back following a 70, were the only other Scots to make the cut.

Westwood showed why Sweden is a happy hunting ground for him as he followed up a first-round 68 by registering eight birdies to move to 12 under ahead of a chasing pack of three that contained Saltman.

The Nordea Masters provided Westwood with his first European Tour win in 1996 and he also won the event in 2000.

“I’ve always enjoyed coming to Sweden, obviously winning here for the first time in 1996 gave me an affinity,” the Worksop golfer told Europeantour.com. “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. 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 a lot 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 a lot of chances.”

Saltman was joined by local favourite Peter Hanson and Spain’s Carlos Del Moral at nine under. Hanson had a double bogey at the 11th but recovered with three birdies in his next four holes. “I didn’t strike the ball as well as I would have hoped and 68 was a good result,” said the 2008 champion.

A score of 72 meant overnight leader Magnus Carlsson was five shots off the lead along with one-time clubhouse leader Richard Bland. Sergio Garcia threatened briefly, but he found water at the par 5 13th and made 69 to finish the day on six under.

SCORES

132 Lee Westwood 68 64

135 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 68 67, Peter Hanson (Swe) 67 68, Lloyd Saltman 71 64

136 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 68 68, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 68 68, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 67 69, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 65, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 69 67

137 Richard Bland 67 70, Chris Wood 71 66, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 65 72

Selected others: 140 Peter Whiteford 71 69. 143. 144 Tommy Fleetwood 72 72. 147 Scott Jamieson 73 74, Alastair Forsyth 74 73. 149 Craig Lee 72 77, Raymond Russell 77 72.