Haydn Barron (-9) is the leader of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters once the second day is over, as was almost expected after the Australian signed a 67 this morning and escaped at the top of the table. However, despite his sprint, things are still very tight on a course where you have to play very solid golf to get a result, with those firm greens. The playing conditions in the afternoon have been slightly more benign, with less wind, a circumstance that has undoubtedly helped the Japanese Rikuya Hoshino (-7) and the Australian Harrison Endycott (-7) to reach the shared second place, two strokes behind Barron.
For now, the Spanish Armada, which usually shines every year in these parts, has not placed anyone so high. But we find a few representatives cunningly located on a second and third line and, above all, with the confidence (and even the certainty) of still causing good commotion. Jorge Campillo (-4) is one of them, and that he was lamenting some specific mistakes on the greens, those short putts that are so annoying when they do not end with the ball inside the cup. “I could be much better in the classification, those short putts that I have missed in the first two rounds have been a nuisance, but I think the tournament is still very open,” said the Extremaduran to Tengolf after signing a very well worked 70 stroke card. Let’s not forget that this man was playing and losing a play off for victory just three months ago on this same course with the Finn Valimaki… Tomorrow he goes out five strokes from the head and with increasing confidence in his game, compared to the last weeks of competition.
Pablo Larrazábal (-3) is another one who is eager to play the third round already. “Everything ready for a good attack from tomorrow,” he says emphatically. It is not strange, considering how he finished his round today, with four birdies in the last five holes, but especially in view of the game he has displayed on the second nine holes of the Qatari course, which he has solved with a partial of five less, excellent, but that in reality could have been much better.
“For the first nine it was not so bad either, but I made three mistakes and all three ended in bogey,” says the Spanish player. “Then, for the second nine… If I make eight or nine birdies in that stretch, it would not have been so strange”. Is the Barcelona player exaggerating? Well not necessarily: for the second half he has putted for birdie on the nine greens and only once has he done it above three meters away. He has been hitting extraordinary irons: on the 11th, on the 13th, on the 14th, on the 15th… On the 16th, the short par 4, he was not far from making the eagle, putting from outside the green. And on the par 5 of the 18th, as a finish, with the round and the comeback already made, he closed with another birdie, with a particularity: “that birdie has to be noted on Raúl’s (Quirós, his caddie) card, because if I hit the 3 wood as a second shot, as I wanted, we don’t make the four in any way”. Said and done.
Up to eight Spanish players have made the cut. Alejandro del Rey (-2) and Manu Elvira (-1) are also in red numbers, although a little further away. And the rest will start in the first matches on Saturday, nine strokes from the head, but also eager to make noise from early on: Sebas García (PAR), Alfredo García Heredia (PAR), Santi Tarrio (PAR) and Adrián Otaegui (PAR). It’s a shame that Rafa Cabrera Bello and Ángel Hidalgo could not join this extensive list, especially because both came to the last hole with the option of getting in with a birdie, one for the 9 and the other for the 18, both par 5, but it did not fall in any case.
