Sweden’s Alexander Bjork carded the lowest round of his European Tour career and of the tournament so far, shooting a 63 to sit at 9-under at the halfway mark in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters yesterday.
Bjork is a shot off the lead alongside compatriot Marcus Kinhult and three others.
It was a bogey-free round for Bjork, who had just one top-ten in 2019, as he carded an eight-under, the lowest round at Education City Golf Club.
“I have been struggling a lot lately but I have been starting to feel last week that the game was getting a bit better,” Bjork said.
“I played quite good yesterday but did not get the putts to drop,” he said.
Bjork was on a high feet after claiming his maiden European Tour win at the Volvo China Open in 2018 en route to finishing in Europe’s top 20 at the end of the campaign. The next year, he only had one top-ten finish.
However, he has felt recently that his game is returning to him and that certainly showed in Doha.
“I just got into a really good flow from the start today, hitting almost every fairway, kind of firing at the pins, so it just felt really good,” the 29-year-old said.
Bjork took full advantage of a wind-free morning to put himself in contention.
“I took advantage of the really calm weather and when you feel like the swing is really there and there is no wind, you can aim at the pins and I got a lot of good chances.
“Like I said, I have been coming off quite a tough stretch, so it was a lot of fun to actually feel the flow again and maybe my best round tee to green since I won two years ago. It was fun to get that feeling again because it was a long time ago,” he said.
His countryman Kinhult also had an eventful 65 with an eagle, six birdies and two bogeys. Kinhult revealed he had been to the Qatar Open table tennis as part of his preparations.
“I played practise rounds as always and I went to the table tennis actually, it is about ten minutes away, so that was my preparation for the week,” the reigning British Masters champion said.
Kinhult is in Qatar with his father and coach Martin, who is still a big influence on his son.
“My dad will always be and he is here this week,” he said. “It’s his first tournament of the year and we are staying together, so it’s nice to have him out here,” the 23-year-old Swede said.
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