Pablo Ereño (-3), with his impressive 68 adorned with the first hole-in-one of his career, had set the best result among the Spaniards after the morning session at the FedEx Open de France, a DP World Tour tournament taking place at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche in Paris. However, in the afternoon, Jorge Campillo (-4), with a fantastic round of 67 strokes, featuring five birdies and just one bogey, not only surpassed the Madrid native but also broke into the top 5 of the leaderboard, just three strokes behind Englishman Marcus Armitage (-7), who finished Thursday as the leader.
The Extremaduran golfer, who had been struggling in the early rounds of tournaments, recorded his best Thursday score of the year this season, removing a thorn that was hindering his results, and sets the path for the Armada with several players well-positioned at the start. In addition to Ereño and Nacho Elvira (-2), who played in the first session, Ángel Ayora (-3) also sneaked just outside the top 10 with a round of 68 strokes, while García Heredia (-2), finishing his day with an eagle on the 16th and a birdie on the 18th, also managed to end in the red numbers.
Pablo Larrazábal (PAR) finished level with the course, with 71 strokes, after starting with two bogeys on holes 2 and 3, recovering with two consecutive birdies on the 7th and 8th, and making pars both on the 9th and throughout the second half of his round. He will have to fight tomorrow to make the cut, set around one under par after the first 18 holes of competition, just like Rafa Cabrera Bello (+1), Ángel Hidalgo (+2), Eugenio López Chacarra (+2), Manuel Elvira (+2), and Joel Moscatel (+3).
Some important names on the tour also appear high on the leaderboard, such as Min Woo Lee (-5) and Julien Guerrier (-5), who share second place two strokes behind the leader, with Ugo Coussaud (-4), Maximilian Kieffer (-4), Marcus Kinhult (-4), Jens Dantorp (-4), Keita Nakajima (-4), and Sam Bairstow (-4) sharing fourth place with a Campillo who recorded his best result of the season in May at the Turkish Airlines Open, finishing tied for second, and who is fighting to win again on the tour two and a half years after sealing his third tour victory in Kenya.
