Brandon Stone shot 68 at Le Golf National on Friday to join a five-way tie for the lead at the halfway mark of the Open de France.
The world number 100 broke onto the European Tour at the BMW SA Open in January and has since posted top 10s at the Shenzhen International and the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
This week he’s carded rounds of 69 and 68 on a tricky Paris layout to make the weekend as co-leader with Rory McIlroy, Jeunghun Wang, Thongchai Jaidee, and Mikko Ilonen.
Stone began his second round on the first and dropped a shot at the third, but it was clinical work from there onward. He pencilled in birdies at the sixth, seventh, and ninth to turn in 34.
He kept it tidy on the back stretch, where he birdied the 15th on his way to a share of the lead on five-under-par for the tournament.
