Staff WriterBy all appearances, the wind in Bogense has found a Scottish ally. Calum Fyfe, sporting a swing as smooth as Glenfiddich and just as potent, carved up the first two days of the Danish Golf Challenge with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.
With a course-record-tying eight-under 64 in the opening round and a follow-up 67 on Friday, the 27-year-old Glaswegian stormed to 13 under par and a two-stroke lead heading into the weekend at Bogense Golf Club.
“I am really pleased. I’m glad about how things have been going and hopefully that can continue,” said Fyfe, who’s treating this week’s Danish Golf Challenge less like a polite handshake and more like a full-throttle grab at the trophy.
Day one was all fire; day two, finesse. Six birdies peppered his second round, including a pair on the long 14th and 16th. Lay-ups, mind you.
Yes, in this age of bomb-and-gouge, Fyfe’s playing chess with a sand wedge. “I am good with my wedges, so it was about getting myself in the right positions and try and get some spin on the ball to stop it,” he explained, matter-of-fact, as if every Tour pro is slotting birdies from 90 yards like darts at a pub.
The only drama came late Friday on the par-three 18th, where Fyfe’s birdie putt took one look at the cup, flirted with destiny, then cruelly lipped out and scooted five feet past.
But the Scot regrouped with a shrug, rattled in the par, and marched off with a grin. “I thought it was in the whole way but then it lipped out and rolled five feet away,” he said. “I had to regroup, hole it, and it was a good day’s work.”
Trailing in his wake is Sweden’s Per Längfors at 11 under after a sizzling 66, followed closely by Dutchman Lars van Meijel on 10 under.
Denmark’s own John Axelsen, a crowd favourite with the home faithful, lurks at nine under, while a small Euro-posse including Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen, Czech Filip Mruzek, and Albin Bergstrom are knotted at eight under.
Fyfe, who was forced to finish his opening round in Thursday’s twilight gloom, shrugged off the short turnaround to be first out on Friday like a man still running on adrenaline-or, perhaps, espresso and ambition.
“Once I got here and got up in the morning, I was ready to go,” he said. “The gameplan is to keeping going for it, making sure I don’t quit, and see what happens.”
The Danish Golf Challenge resumes Saturday at 07:30 am with Fyfe, van Meijel, and Längfors anchoring the final trio at 12:02 pm. If the Scot’s short game keeps purring and his nerve holds steady, the weekend could belong to him.
Then again, as we’ve learned many times in this fickle sport: golf doesn’t care who’s leading on Friday. But it does tend to reward the ones who wedge like wizards and putt like poets.
Let’s see if Calum Fyfe can pen a winning stanza.
