Johansson happy on busman's honeymoon

It may not be a traditional honeymoon venue, but Sweden’s Per-Ulrik Johansson was still enjoying himself at the Scandinavian Masters at Kungsangen.

Johansson spent last Sunday getting married to fellow professional Jesper Parnevik’s sister Jill in Ostra Ryd, 25 miles north of Stockholm.

A honeymoon was not on the agenda, though, because the former Ryder Cup player was back on the golf course four days later to take part in the €2.07m event.

It did not look like a great decision after rounds of 70 and 74 left Johansson two over par at the halfway stage, eight shots behind overnight leader Warren Bennett.

But a spectacular scoring burst in the early stages of the third round this morning delighted the large local galleries and lifted the 35-year-old into a share of second place.

Birdies at the first, third, fifth and eighth were followed by an eagle three at the ninth to be out in 30 - and another birdie at the 11th saw Johansson seven under for the day and five under for the tournament.

That was now just one shot behind Bennett who was not due out for another 90 minutes, and a birdie in the last two holes would break the course record of 64 set by Northern Ireland rookie Graeme McDowell in the first round.

Holland’s Maarten Lafeber holed an eight iron for a hole-in-one on the fourth, and scoring was noticeably better than yesterday when a blustery wind and some fiendish pin positions caused plenty of problems.