Manu Elvira (-6) has signed a round of 66 strokes on the second day of the Magical Kenya Open, a result that has taken him to the top of the table, just one stroke behind the provisional leaders, Tapio Pulkkanen (-7) and Darius Van Driel (-7), awaiting the end of the afternoon shift of play.
As you can see, it is not exactly being played in an easy way on the old and beautiful course of the Muthaiga Golf Club in Nairobi, so the record of the younger of the Elvira brothers takes on greater relevance and certainly assures him a place in the last matches on Saturday. Once again, and there have been a few in the last year, whether in the Challenge Tour, in 2023, and even this same year, already as a rookie in the first division.
Manu is currently leading a Spanish Armada that in many cases is moving in the right direction on this second day, especially if we take into account the tightness in the classification (it would not be strange if at the end of the day we had about forty players within a margin of four strokes from the head of the tournament). His brother Nacho, for example, has gone today to a cumulative of -4, also in the high zone. Iván Cantero (-3) is not far away and, in his case, it is also necessary to celebrate the fact that he has finally managed to pass a cut this season, the one of his return to the DP World Tour. It has been on the eighth attempt and the Asturian needed this injection of confidence, especially when he will also start in the third round with all expectations open after his round of 70 strokes today.
Another who has signed that record of 70 strokes is Adrián Otaegui (-3), who has also positioned himself moderately well for the weekend. Santi Tarrio (-1) will also be part of the last two rounds, despite having played today above par. Ángel Hidalgo (+1) and Alfredo García Heredia (+1), however, may have been left out, after signing rounds of 74 and 69 strokes, respectively. Alfredo, in particular, has starred in a crazy round, with only four pars, eight birdies and six bogeys, a real roller coaster that we will see if it is enough to get him inside the cut. Both need the wind to keep blowing in the afternoon and even increase. They have not lost everything.
The key in Manu Elvira’s 66, which is currently the best result of the day, was probably in his irons, which have returned to where they used to be, after two tournaments, in Bahrain and Qatar, where he was not so fine in this area of the game. On Thursday, in fact, the improvement was already evident, but today he has also managed to leave the ball a little closer to the hole on a considerable number of opportunities. The best example was probably the 7 iron he hit on hole 5, par 3, where he left the ball very close to the hole, already in the final stretch of his round (he had started at 10). Manu continues to knock on the door and any week of these ends up knocking it down.
