Hanson, Dougherty lead SAS Masters, amateur shoots 62

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STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Peter Hanson and Nick Dougherty shot 4-under 66s for the second straight day to share the halfway lead in the SAS Masters on Friday.

Hanson, trying to become the first Swede to win the European PGA Tour event since Jesper Parnevik 10 years ago, had a bogey-free round on the Arlandastad course north of Stockholm.

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England's Nick Dougherty seems to be finding his game again in Sweden this week.

Dougherty, who was runner-up last year, had two bogeys. But the Englishman finished strongly with birdies on three of his last four holes.

Hanson hopes a win on home turf will help him clinch a spot on Europe's Ryder Cup team against the United States next month.

"If I win this, I will probably rethink and play in the Netherlands next week and try to qualify," he said. "It's farfetched to think that I'll get a wild card."

European captain Nick Faldo gets two wild-card picks.

Dougherty is also a Ryder Cup hopeful. He topped the qualifying list last October but has fallen to 14th since his mother died in April.

"The Ryder Cup would be lovely, and I would be an idiot if I said it does not matter, but more important is enjoying my golf again," Dougherty said.

Soren Kjeldsen (65) of Denmark and Patrik Sjoland (66) of Sweden were two strokes behind the co-leaders at 6-under 134.

Daniel Chopra, a PGA TOUR regular from Sweden, eagled the 15th on his way to a 64 and moved from 51st into a four-way tie for fifth at 135.

Parnevik, who is the tournament's player-manager, was in a tie for 12th at 137.

Robert Karlsson, at 21st the highest-ranked player in the field, missed his first cut of the year by one shot. He blamed poor putting.

"Nothing went in," Karlsson said. "It's never fun to miss the cut, especially not at home."

Karlsson, who will play only one European event before the Ryder Cup, also missed the cut last year on the same course.

"It's fortunate that we don't play here all year around," said the Swede, who made the top-20 in all four majors this year.

D.J. Trahan, among the leading candidates for one of Paul Azinger's four wild cards for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and fellow American Dudley Hart both missed the cut by two shots.

Defending champion Mikko Ilonen of Finland shot 70 for the second straight day and made it. He was in a tie for 39th.

Most of the fans were gone when Swedish amateur David Palm shot a 62 -- 17 strokes better than an opening round that had left him 155th out of 156. He just made the cut at 141.

His round tied the lowest round ever by an amateur on the European Tour but preferred lies means it will not enter the record books or constitute a course record.