If his play on the difficult ninth hole today says anything about the 18-year-old Kinhult's ability to handle the weekend pressure, things are looking good. Stading on the tee of the 476-yard par four (playing into the wind) Kinhult drove into the fairway bunker. Just when it looked like he might close out the round (he started on the 10th) with a bogey or worse, he nailed his fairway bunker shot from 190 yards to 15 feet and calmly rolled in the birdie putt to the delight of the partisan crowds.

"That was a lot of fun," Kinhult told European Tour Radio. "I had a great time out there. It felt great coming in those last few holes with bigger crowds and I managed to make two big putts too, so that was a great feeling.

"I saw my name on the leaderboard, it was hard to avoid, but I tried to just stick to the game plan and focus on what I could affect and I managed to do that pretty well so I'm happy with that.

"I'm here to gain some experience and that's what it's all about. It's going to be a lot of fun this weekend and good experience to go out there tomorrow and try again."

Kinhult stands at the top of the leaderboard along with fellow Swede Jens Dantorp at 9-under. World No. 4 Henrik Stenson, who slipped to T34 after posting even-par 72.

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