Bad news for the Spaniards in the second round of the Barracuda Championship, a tournament co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour taking place simultaneously with the Open Championship this week. On a Friday to forget, only one of the four members of the Armada present at the Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, California, has scored enough points to continue playing over the weekend.
Only Iván Cantero (+13) has taken advantage of the modified stableford format used in this event to advance in the tournament and, although he is far from the lead, he has two rounds ahead to try and take risks in search of a good final result. The points awarded for eagles and birdies allow for significant comebacks, so even though he is currently in 43rd place on the leaderboard, anything is still possible.
This Friday, he went all out with five birdies and three bogeys, to add seven points in the partial and climb three positions. He is 13 behind the leader, Rico Hoey (+26), who reaches the halfway point of a US tour tournament at the top of the standings for the second time in his career after achieving it earlier this year at the American Express, where he ended up sinking over the weekend to finish in 58th place.
The Filipino with a US passport leads by one point over Max McGreeavy (+25) and South African Erik van Rooyen (+25), who is looking to join J.J. Henry and Vaughn Taylor, two-time winners of the tournament, as one of the players who has won more than once at this event. Additionally, he wants to be the third South African to win on the PGA Tour in 2025 after Aldrich Potgieter (Rocket Classic) and Garrick Higgo (Corales Puntacana Championship).
The cut was set at +11 (remember that in this tournament the winner is the one who scores the most points). Alfredo García-Heredia (+8), after his notable start on Thursday, ended up three points short of continuing to play over the weekend. It went much worse for Rafa Cabrera Bello (+2) and Manuel Elvira (-8), with no options all week after a challenging start to the tournament where they did not take advantage of the playing format.
