Ferguson takes charge of Soudal Open with brilliant 64

It carried him three shots clear of England's Marco Penge, with Dutch pair Joost Luiten and Darius Van Driel, American Troy Merritt and English trio John Parry, Brandon Robinson Thompson and Andrew Wilson sharing third on seven under.

Ferguson said: "I quite enjoy when a par is a good score. I find it tough sometimes when you just need to make birdies and there's a lot of pressure on to make birdies.

"So when it's quite tough like that to grind out pars, I feel comfortable with that because that's how I was brought up playing and in Scotland par is a brilliant score."

Jason Scrivener, the lone Australian at the Belgian tournament, was six shots behind the leader in a share of ninth place, after a second-round 68.