Hurly Long holds halfway British Masters lead with many within striking distance

SUTTON COLDFIELD, England — German golfer Hurly Long was the halfway leader at the British Masters by a stroke on Friday.

Tournament host Danny Willett was among seven players within two strokes of Long, who is in his first season on the DP World Tour.

But consecutive finishes of third and second on tour in February and March make Long believe that experience will stand him in good stead this weekend.

“I’ve been in this situation before, I’m really looking forward to it,” said Long, born in Heidelberg to an American father (Tom, a golf professional) and a German mother.

“There’s a lot of good players near the top of the leaderboard so it should be a good test and a lot of fun.”

Long started his second round from the 10th hole with a run of nine straight pars but then birdied five of his next six holes and was two shots clear of the field until a bogey on the ninth, his final hole of the day.

Full-field scores from the Betfred British Masters

The resulting 4-under 68 left him on 9 under par and a shot ahead of Scotland’s Richie Ramsay, Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and Sweden’s Marcus Kinhalt.

Another Dane, Rasmus Hojgaard, was a stroke further back.

Willett has designs on presenting the trophy to himself after surging into contention at The Belfry.

Willett was 3 over par after 12 holes of his first round and feared making an early exit from the event before having to return on Sunday evening to hand the silverware to the winner.

Two late birdies meant the former Masters champion eventually signed for an opening 73 and he carried on where he left off on Friday, making eight more birdies and a sole bogey on the ninth, his final hole of the day.

“Today felt like myself (playing), yesterday felt like my brother,” joked Willett, whose 65 put him at 6 under with three others.

“I wasn’t quite expecting that. I giggled to myself, I think we were 99th on the 16th green last night and then looked up there today and we were fifth. It’s a pretty decent effort.”