The second day of the ISPS Handa Championship has left us with four co-leaders, which could not be completely closed due to lack of light, due to the delay accumulated on Thursday because of the fog. They are the Japanese Taihei Sato (-10), author of the best record of the day, an impressive card of 62 strokes, Yannik Paul (-10), Sebastian Soderberg (-10) and Sam Bairstow (-10), the English left-hander who parades his powerful baseball grip and continues to appear in the top positions in recent weeks of competition.
One of the big favourites this week in Japanese lands is precisely one of the young talents of Japanese golf, Keita Nakajima (-6), who comes from winning in India. Today, the young star has not done well almost anything. Very erratic from the tee (up to four times he has caught street bunkers) and a little more failing and unfortunate than usual on the greens… He was not comfortable on a day when the line that separated the struggles to fight for the cut from the pleasure of getting up there, with the best. And yet, Nakajima has pulled off a round below par, 68 strokes, two less on the day, which has placed him four strokes from the head and at the gates of the top ten.
If there is one certainty in golf it is precisely this: the best players are those who, more or less regularly, manage to make a result on the most pestilent days of play. Today Nakajima has done it. If he adjusts his tee to green game a little bit, he will surely be a protagonist during the weekend. He has resources to spare. And an excellent attitude. We must also consider the pressure with which he came to this tournament, in his land. These are very dangerous weeks in which the desire to please, to confirm, can play against you and be disastrous. Keita, for now, is doing something more than saving the situation…
Alejandro del Rey (-5) and Manu Elvira (-5) are currently the best placed Spaniards after signing cards of 69 and 67 strokes on the Japanese Gotemba course. They are not too far away either. Elvira has even looked at higher levels during the round, although the final result and, above all, his good feelings from tee to green, are notable, with special mention to hole 18 he played, the ninth of his round. In this par 5 his ball hit a tree off the tee and, although it ended up resting on the fairway, it was 230 metres from the flag and from there he hit a splendid hybrid and left a good eagle option. Manu continues to do many things well in his debut year in the first division.
Outstanding was the round of 66 strokes by Iván Cantero (-4), who had to come back to make the cut and he did it with plenty to spare. The same goes for Ángel Hidalgo (-3) and his card of 67 strokes. Adrián Otaegui (-4, round of 69) will also be there at the weekend. All of them, it must be insisted, still with options to do something interesting, because the tournament is tight and it gives the feeling that the course, if it does not rain, is going to get a little firmer.
Especially painful were the cases of Santi Tarrio (-2) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (-2), who were left at the gates of the cut. The Galician did not finish off the great comeback he was making, heavily weighed down by Thursday’s 73. But there is his round of 65 strokes with five birdies and an eagle on the card. As for the Canary Islander, he was looking decidedly at the leadership or surroundings, with a partial of three under for the first five holes, but a terrible short circuit on holes 9 and 10, where he signed two double bogeys, took him to the tail end. He was still going to putt for birdie on holes 17 and 18, but in his current dynamic of play and opportunities, especially tricky, nothing ends up coming out as it should.
