He now lies on 14 under par, three clear of Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, who followed up an opening 65 with a 66, and four shots ahead of Spain’s Eduardo De La Riva and Bernd Wiesberger of Austria.
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A birdie at his first hole, the 406-yard 10th, set him on his way and he picked up three further shots before the turn with three additional birdies coming over the front nine.
The 28-year old Englishman is looking for a third title of the season after winning the The South African Open Championship and the Joburg Open earlier in the season with Pieters also on a hat-trick after his recent victories at the D+D REAL Czech Masters and the KLM Open.
“So hard not to shoot a good a score the way I was hitting it and putting it really”.
“Seven was just ridiculous”, he said.
Trevor Fisher Jnr was also eight under after a topsy-turvy 68 that saw him go out in 31 and come back in 37 with two men in need of a good week also six shots off the lead.
Throwing a potential spanner into the works for Sullivan is the possibility of bad weather over the weekend.
Former Ryder Cup player Colsaerts had birdied the 11th, 12th and 13th as he looked to go one better than previous year, when he finished second to France’s Alexander Levy in a tournament reduced to 36 holes due to torrential rain. “It’s the first time I’ve started a round with an eagle as my home course commences with a par three, and then to hole a 40-footer for birdie at the next was a great start”, he said.
Nicolas Colsaerts shared the overnight lead with Sullivan, but the big-hitting Belgian slid down the leaderboard after a terrible triple-bogey eight at the 12th, although he did manage three straight birdies before closing with a bogey to drop back to seven under.
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“It’s one of those courses where I feel comfortable”, Colsaerts, who is 22 under par for his last three rounds here, told Sky Sports 4.
