England’s Eddie Pepperell and Denmark’s Hamish Brown share the lead heading into the third day of the 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.

South African golfer Christo Lamprecht. Photo: GettyImages

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.

Fellow South African Louis de Jager is in fifth place at six under, while Christiaan Burke, Dylan Naidoo, and Jacques Blaauw are in seventh place at five under. Bloemfontein-born Wilco Nienaber is in joint eleventh with Jovan Rebula and Jaden Schaper on four under.

After the day’s round Pepperell told media a weekend of opportunity waits.

Denmark’s Hamish Brown. Photo: Sunshine Tour

“It’s been a while since I’ve been able to feel really confident because there’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.

Danish rookie Brown, born in Denmark to a Scottish father, said the conditions on Friday were very favourable.

“It was good conditions, not too much wind today,” he said. “The course is fairly wide, you don’t have to do too much off the tee. 

“It is more into the greens. They are a bit tricky to put on as well. We have only played two rounds so there is a lot of golf left.”

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger mvh