Jorge Campillo and Andy Sullivan shared the lead heading into the weekend at the 2020 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters but they had a host of European Tour winners breathing down their necks at Education City Golf Club.
Sullivan took advantage of the low winds in the morning to fire a second consecutive 66 and get to ten under and it looked for a long time as if the Englishman would not be caught at the top of a congested leaderboard.
But Campillo went blemish free in posting a 66 on his own to also get to double figures and join Sullivan in top spot.
Swede Alexander Björk carded the lowest round of the week and his European Tour career with a course record 63 to sit at nine under alongside countryman Marcus Kinhult, England’s Oliver Fisher, Frenchman Romain Langasque and Dutchman Joost Luiten.
Danish trio Nicolai Højgaard, Benjamin Poke and Jeff Winther, South African Darren Fichardt, Scotland’s Scott Jamieson and England’s Jack Senior were three shots off the lead.
Player quotes
Andy Sullivan: “I’ve got it under lock at the moment. I feel like I am control of myself, which is the most important thing for me, I really felt like I took my time a little bit more on shots and stuff. When I have been doing well before I generally rush the shot, maybe try to hit it a bit quickly, so I have been trying to take my time a little bit more and be a bit more composed over the shot trying to hit it to the right areas.
“I’ve not be super aggressive the past two days and I have holed a couple of putts to keep me in it, so like I said yesterday, it’s just about being patient and that is what I have been doing the past two days.
“I feel like I have grown up a little bit now on the golf course. You know I think that having a laugh on the golf course is all well and good, and I still enjoy it but for me, I have really had to knuckle down the past two days to keep myself in check because there are times when I find myself wondering. It has been difficult, and it is something new for me, trying to keep focused for so long, normally I drift in and out a little bit, but it’s been really good and positive signs as the golf has been really good.”
Jorge Campillo: “I’ve worked on a few things over the last week and in Oman. It’s working out good and I’m putting great as well – I’ve been putting awfully lately – and it’s been a great two days.
“It’s a nice position to be in going into the weekend, hopefully I can play like this and if I do, I’m going to have a good chance to win on Sunday.”
Alexander Björk: “I have been struggling a lot lately, but I have been starting to feel last week that the game was getting a bit better. I played quite good yesterday but did not get the putts to drop, so I don’t know. I just got in a really good flow from the start, hitting almost every fairway, kind of firing at the pins so it just felt really good.
“I took advantage of the really calm weather and when you feel like the swing is really there, and there is no wind, you can aim at the pins and I got a lot of good chances.
“Like I said, I have been coming off quite a tough stretch, so it was a lot of fun to actually feel the flow again, and maybe my best round tee to green since I won two years ago. It was fun to get that feeling again because it was a long time ago.”
Round two scores
132 J Campillo (Esp) 66 66, A Sullivan (Eng) 66 66,
133 O Fisher (Eng) 69 64, A Björk (Swe) 70 63, J Luiten (Ned) 65 68, R Langasque (Fra) 69 64, M Kinhult (Swe) 68 65,
135 J Winther (Den) 66 69, B Poke (Den) 68 67, N Højgaard (Den) 64 71, D Fichardt (RSA) 67 68, S Jamieson (Sco) 67 68, J Senior (Eng) 69 66,
136 D Burmester (RSA) 69 67, L Van Meijel (Ned) 70 66, S Chawrasia (Ind) 67 69, L Gagli (Ita) 66 70, T Pieters (Bel) 66 70, D Coupland (Eng) 68 68, D Drysdale (Sco) 67 69,
137 B Hebert (Fra) 67 70, J Harding (RSA) 70 67, N Lemke (Swe) 68 69, M Jordan (Eng) 70 67, F Zanotti (Par) 69 68, K Moon (Kor) 67 70, C Pigem (Esp) 66 71, K Samooja (Fin) 70 67,
138 W Nienaber (RSA) 68 70, D Horsey (Eng) 69 69, T Detry (Bel) 72 66, G Coetzee (RSA) 70 68, O Farr (Wal) 74 64, J Smith (Eng) 69 69, A Rozner (Fra) 69 69, M Armitage (Eng) 67 71, C Sordet (Fra) 72 66,
139 G Green (Mas) 70 69, B Stone (RSA) 71 68, P Larrazábal (Esp) 72 67, A Saddier (Fra) 69 70, Z Lombard (RSA) 70 69, C Paisley (Eng) 69 70, G Havret (Fra) 68 71, Y Touhami (Mar) 68 71, J Wang (Kor) 70 69, M Pavon (Fra) 70 69,
140 M Schwab (Aut) 70 70, S Heisele (Ger) 68 72, S Soderberg (Swe) 74 66, C Sharvin (Nir) 71 69, B Robinson Thompson (Eng) 72 68, S Gallacher (Sco) 72 68, T Lee (Kor) 70 70, R Macintyre (Sco) 68 72, M Kieffer (Ger) 69 71, R Paratore (Ita) 69 71, T Tree (Eng) 71 69, A Cañizares (Esp) 71 69,
141 R Rock (Eng) 72 69, L Canter (Eng) 72 69, S Crocker (USA) 71 70, J Scrivener (Aus) 70 71, S Valimaki (Fin) 70 71, H Du Plessis (RSA) 72 69, N Bertasio (Ita) 72 69, J Guerrier (Fra) 72 69, H Porteous (RSA) 73 68, R Ramsay (Sco) 70 71, J Lagergren (Swe) 70 71, S Brown (Eng) 71 70, R Fisher (Eng) 68 73, J Morrison (Eng) 73 68, S Kim (USA) 72 69, M Kawamura (Jpn) 76 65, P Figueiredo (Por) 70 71, S Kjeldsen (Den) 72 69,
142 N Colsaerts (Bel) 71 71, P Hanson (Swe) 71 71, J Veerman (USA) 71 71, M Siem (Ger) 68 74, C Syme (Sco) 72 70, S Horsfield (Eng) 74 68, R Højgaard (Den) 70 72, J McLeod (Aus) 70 72, M Antcliff (Aus) 70 72, A Rai (Eng) 71 71, V Dubuisson (Fra) 71 71, A Levy (Fra) 70 72,
143 D Law (Sco) 70 73, O Wilson (Eng) 72 71, A Meronk (Pol) 74 69, A Arnaus (Esp) 72 71, M Lee (Aus) 72 71, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 74, M Kaymer (Ger) 73 70, J Caldwell (Nir) 74 69, N Elvira (Esp) 74 69,
144 G Porteous (Eng) 73 71, R McEvoy (Eng) 72 72, A Cockerill (Can) 72 72, J Singh Brar (Eng) 73 71, M Korhonen (Fin) 69 75, B Dredge (Wal) 74 70, G Migliozzi (Ita) 71 73, J Dantorp (Swe) 72 72,
145 A Otaegui (Esp) 75 70, A Quiros (Esp) 71 74, G Storm (Eng) 71 74, J Walters (RSA) 71 74, M Keyser (RSA) 73 72, A Pavan (Ita) 74 71, J Choi (Kor) 70 75, R Karlberg (Swe) 74 71,
146 D Van Driel (Ned) 73 73, R Roussel (Fra) 75 71, J Donaldson (Wal) 73 73, R Santos (Por) 73 73,
147 R Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 74 73, A Wu (Chn) 73 74, P Lawrie (Sco) 76 71, A Chesters (Eng) 74 73, J Hansen (Den) 73 74, S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 74 73, S Al Kurdi (am) (Jor) 73 74,
149 T Pulkkanen (Fin) 71 78, S Sharma (Ind) 71 78, G Forrest (Sco) 73 76, D Whitnell (Eng) 75 74, H Leon (Chi) 73 76,
150 M Southgate (Eng) 74 76, R Jacquelin (Fra) 75 75, C Hill (Sco) 80 70,
151 H Li (Chn) 72 79,
152 J Gonnet (Fra) 75 77, S Al Kaabi (am) (Qat) 79 73,
154 M Young (am) (Irl) 78 76,
166 A Al-Shahrani (am) (Qat) 80 86,
** S Hend (Aus) 73 RT, E Molinari (Ita) 76 DQ, D Howell (Eng) 81 WD, K Broberg (Swe) 74 WD, E Pepperell (Eng) DQ 0, P Waring (Eng) WD 0,