Warren Bennett became the unlikely second-round leader at the Scandinavian Masters in Kungsangen after a lucky break.

The 30-year-old carded a one-under 70 to reach seven under and lead by one shot from a group of five players.

But he admitted that his birdie at the 15th was the result of a miscued drive which got a friendly bounce off a tree.

The hole, a driveable 295-yard par four, features dangerous trees and rough.

"That was my get out of jail free card," said Bennett, who almost quit the game after a bout of pneumonia and neck injury.

"It was heading for the jungle, you'd rather be in the water than in there."

Northern Ireland rookie Graeme McDowell, the overnight leader, reached the turn still in the lead at seven under but he dropped two shots on the way home.

He shares second with Ignacio Garrido, Trevor Immelman, Carl Pettersson and Fredrik Andersson.

Defending champion Colin Montgomerie added a 69 to his first round 70 and is well placed for a weekend charge.

"Rounds of 70, 69 is not very good but I'm in the top 15 and poised to challenge," said the Scot, who admitted he was not happy with the quality of the greens.

"I haven't won for a year and I need to win. The game has not quite been as good as it was but you need to get fortunate.

"It's just a matter of being patient, but that's a horrible word and I'm not very good at it. I'm three behind and I've won from further behind than that."

Ireland's David Higgins was disqualified from the event after walking off the course after nine holes of his second round.

The 29-year-old from Waterville was five over for the day and 10 over in total when he decided to call it a day, and faces a fine from tour officials if he fails to offer a satisfactory explanation.

Leading second-round scores (GB&Ire unless stated):

6 under Warren Bennett

5 under Fredrik Andersson (Swe), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Fredrik Andersson (Swe)

4 under Jeff Sluman (USA), Ronan Rafferty, Santiago Luna (Spa), Mark Foster, Christopher Hanell (Swe), Barry Lane, Niclas Fasth (Swe)

Selected others:

3 under Colin Montgomerie, Adam Scott (Aus), Nick Dougherty
2 under Jesper Parnevik (Swe)
1 under Thomas Bjorn (Den)