Andreas Halvorsen (-12) is the best player after the first 36 holes of the Danish Golf Challenge. The Norwegian, a year older than his compatriot Viktor Hovland, is looking to claim the most important title of his career in Denmark.
Halvorsen is excelling at golf this week with a clear goal: to win his first Challenge Tour. The 27-year-old player is only playing his 18th tournament on the circuit and doesn’t even know what it’s like to finish in the top ten in any of them.
Andreas is going through the best moment of his career. Until this year he had barely passed two cuts in the twelve tournaments he had played. This season he has already passed the four cuts in as many championships he has played, to this must be added two top 20s. Two rounds of 66 strokes cement a leadership that allows him to reach the weekend at the top.
Well positioned and eager to spoil the Norwegian’s party is Joel Moscatel (-8) who is already stalking the lead in Odense. The Catalan has replicated his round from yesterday. He started with two mistakes in the first three flags, just as he did on the first day. The thing is that he has recovered exactly as he did yesterday with a six under par in the remaining fifteen holes and without making any bogey along the way. The only difference is that yesterday he did it with six birdies and today he did it with four birdies and an eagle.
Impressive performance from the Catalan player who is now fourth in Denmark. It is not easy to manage the tournament after a victory. Joel admitted to some nerves on the opening day, but he has woken up and in what way.
The second best placed Spanish player is Javi Sainz (-6) who is also within the top fifteen of the tournament. The Basque player is improving as the season progresses and surpasses his fourth consecutive cut in Odense. The lead is six strokes away and the top 10 is just one stroke away, which would be the second of the year after the one achieved in Abu Dhabi.
Borja Virto (-4) is another of the players who is in great need of starting to add valuable prizes that help him climb in the annual ranking. He is currently beyond position 130 and with weeks like this he can start to turn it around. Two rounds of 70 strokes put him in the top 30.
Within the top 20 of the tournament was Víctor Pastor (-2), the Andalusian arrived at hole 16 with a great six under par on the day displaying great play. However, a tough finish with a bogey and a double bogey has made him lose many positions. The great cushion accumulated allows Víctor to play a weekend again after not having passed the cut in the last two tournaments.
At this moment, the Cordovan is in position 29 and therefore within the final of the Road to Mallorca. The goal is none other than one of the twenty cards that give access to the DP World Tour and a good result in Odense would bring him much closer to that provisional position.
One stroke above Víctor appears another Andalusian, Ángel Ayora (-3), who after a very tough first day and settled over par today needed a good mark that allowed him to pass the cut. He has handed in 69 strokes at the clubhouse to seal his presence at the weekend. Ayora, who is playing this week with an invitation, needs to reach the 256 points that served last year to keep the card and that would give him the right to unlimited invitations. The pressure of losing access to have more invitations is there, but the 19-year-old knows how to handle pressure wonderfully. Let’s not forget, the results he gets in the DP World Tour tournaments he plays coinciding with weeks that the Challenge is also played will also add points. For now, Ángel will try to fly very low at the weekend and thus avoid taking out other types of calculators for the rest of the season.
They will not be part of the game tomorrow in Odense, Quim Vidal (+1), Pep Anglés (+1), Lucas Vacarisas (+3), Jorge Maicas (+5), Rubén Lafuente (+6) and Alejandro Aguilera (+6).
By the way, the local hero, Rasmus Neergard-Petersen (-7) continues to show off his best weapons and is within the top ten of the tournament and with options to add a third victory that would catapult him directly to the DP World Tour.
Once the sky seems to have cleared up definitively, the weekend can be flown very low in Denmark. The first day only four holes were played under par and today, with good weather, there have been ten, more than half of the holes on the course. The five Spaniards will try to fly low with the intention of getting closer to the top of the table and their season goals.
