The second day of the Porsche Singapore Classic has made the path slightly uphill. It’s not bad news, quite the opposite. If on Thursday there were about ninety players who won the match against the course of the Laguna National Golf Resort Club, today, Friday, they have barely passed fifty.
Two reasons: on the one hand, the wind has blown perhaps a little more, especially in the morning shift, and on the other hand, the flags were much spicier on the vast majority of the greens, plain and simple. The fact is that the leadership, occupied by the German Freddy Schott (-9) and the Englishmen Andy Sullivan (-9) and Richard Mansell (-9), has barely gone one stroke further than where it was at the start of the day, so the tightness is the dominant note (eight strokes separate the head of the table from the cut line) and, therefore, the weekend can still bring countless alternatives and candidates.
Let’s not say if someone is able to retake the ‘Sullivan path’… The Englishman, with a card of 63 strokes, has shown that positions can be won on the table by the dozen (up to 85 positions he has climbed in this second day).
You can also do one like Matthieu Pavon (-8), although neither the Sullivan path nor the French one are within anyone’s reach at pure whim. The French player has signed his second 68 of the week today and is just one stroke from the lead, showing that his wonderful adventure on the PGA Tour is no coincidence and that he does not seem willing to rest on his laurels on his return to the DP World Tour, where he had not competed since the Mauritius event at the end of 2023.
Pavon, like any other PGA Tour star who would have come to visit, exercises in Singapore as a serious and established top 50 worldwide. As such he has been treated on his return (it could not be otherwise), lined up in the highlighted matches of the first two rounds. And he has lived up to it. So there is no choice but to grant him one of the tags of maximum favourite for the final 36 holes.
Four Spaniards have made the cut and, although none are close to the head, they still have room to manoeuvre because of the tightness. Adri Arnaus (-3) is the most outstanding and he, for example, will start tomorrow only six strokes from the leaders after signing a card of 70 strokes today. Iván Cantero (-2) is not much further away, although the Asturian has not been able to win the battle against the field today (card of 73). Ángel Hidalgo (-1) and Alex del Rey (-1) have had to wait almost until the final whistle to confirm their presence at the weekend, but they are going to be there. Rafa Cabrera Bello (PAR), Manu Elvira (PAR) and Adrián Otaegui (+2) have been left out. Especially cruel was the case of Rafa, able to sign a partial of six less between holes 3 and 8, in the final stretch of his round (he had gone out to play by 10), but a final bogey on 9 left him at the gates of the great comeback.
