𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Danish identical twins Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard made it a family affair on day two of The Open after both shooting under par to sit inside the top 10.

Rasmus, younger by a couple of minutes, carded a 68 which was one better than his sibling and lifted him to the group on five under. Nicolai is one back in a tie for 10th.

“It’s cool to see Ras playing well this week. I saw him quite early on the leaderboard, and I kind of wanted to follow it up,” said Nicolai.

“A little frustrated I didn’t manage to get to minus five where he is. I felt like the round had potential.

“I cheer him on and am happy to see him play well, but I also want to beat him. But it’s a good relationship and hopefully we’ll have a good weekend and maybe battle it out on Sunday.

“We couldn’t handle each other’s success when we were younger, but we can do that now and support each other and get motivated by each other. When you get older, you get slightly more mature.”

They were the first twins to appear at the Masters in April, the 24-year-olds arriving at their pre-tournament news conference dressed identically – although they insisted that was a random coincidence.

World number 70 Rasmus has five DP World Tour wins, Nicolai, ranked 93, has three – but is a Ryder Cup winner after success in Rome two years ago and now plays on the PGA Tour.

Rasmus also wants his brother to do well – until the closing stages of the final round.

He added: “I’m going to root for him until we are on Sunday back nine.”