Rhys Enoch’s round of 67 gave him the halfway lead at the Prague Golf Challenge on 12 under par, one shot ahead of Julien Guerrier and Garrick Porteous, as Round Two was able to be completed following a late storm delay.
The Welshman was one shot off Rourke van der Spuy’s overnight lead and continued that scoring on Day Two, mixing five birdies with an eagle to reach 12 under par for his first 36 holes.
By his own admission, the season so far has not gone Enoch’s way, with just one cut made – coincidentally in the Czech Republic six weeks ago – before this strong display around Prague City Golf.
“It went really well today,” said the 29 year old. “I started off in some tricky conditions early on, it was humid and rainy so it was a bit of a struggle to start but after I got through that I started to play really nicely.
“It was sort of the same as yesterday. I holed my approach to the first, a nice little eight iron, and that really kickstarted my round, got things going, and I’m really happy to have got in at 12 under.
“The course really suits my game because there’s a lot of bunkers I can take out of play, and I’m hitting it well and hitting it long so that’s making it a lot easier – there’s a 650-yard par five and I’m hitting a three iron into it, eight or nine irons into a couple of the other ones, that makes it easy too.
“This just seems to suit my eye. It is wide open, which I don’t usually like because I find it hard to be specific with targets, but there’s a lot of humps and things that make it a bit easier and I just feel really comfortable.
“It’s been a little while coming, this kind of performance, but I’ve been playing really nicely and just making three or four silly bogeys a round which has been stopping me shooting the low numbers.
“It feels like a crunch point in the season, approaching halfway. If you’d told me I’d be in this position this far into the season, how well I feel I’m playing, I wouldn’t have believed you.
“I’ve just got to try to put that good play into good results and start moving up the board, and this performance is encouraging – I played lovely at Open Qualifying on Tuesday and just missed out so I knew I was playing well coming in here.”
Enoch’s nearest challengers on 11 under par are Guerrier, the Frenchman currently fourth on the Road to Oman following victory at last month’s Hauts de France Golf Open, and Porteous of England.
One shot behind them are Steven Brown, Bryce Easton and Ricardo Santos, with 72 players making it through to the weekend after the cut fell at three under par.
Scores after Round 2:
132 R Enoch (Wal) 65 67,
133 J Guerrier (Fra) 65 68, G Porteous (Eng) 66 67,
134 B Easton (RSA) 65 69, S Brown (Eng) 65 69, R Santos (Por) 66 68,
135 P Howard (Eng) 69 66, S Tiley (Eng) 66 69, J Lando Casanova (Fra) 68 67, R Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 66 69, T Tree (Eng) 68 67, J Hansen (Den) 66 69, J Harrison (Eng) 67 68, O Lindell (Fin) 68 67, B Neil (Sco) 66 69,
136 P Oriol (Esp) 66 70, A Meronk (Pol) 73 63, L Johnson (Eng) 69 67, R Van Der Spuy (RSA) 64 72, C Mivis (Bel) 69 67, B Hafthorsson (Isl) 69 67,
137 J Parry (Eng) 70 67, T Pulkkanen (Fin) 69 68, D Fox (Aus) 68 69, P Valasek (Svk) 66 71, M Wiegele (Aut) 68 69,
138 J Sarasti (Esp) 68 70, K Johannessen (Nor) 70 68, D Van Driel (Ned) 71 67, J Dantorp (Swe) 68 70, O Rozner (Fra) 68 70, E Dubois (Fra) 71 67, T Linard (Fra) 67 71, M Delpodio (Ita) 69 69, M Schwab (Aut) 69 69, G Kocken (Swe) 69 69,
139 N Cullen (Aus) 68 71, T Ferrer (Esp) 70 69, L Gagli (Ita) 68 71, S Hutsby (Eng) 67 72, C Sharvin (Nir) 72 67, D Papadatos (Aus) 69 70, R Saxton (Ned) 69 70, J Suri (USA) 71 68, A Maestroni (Ita) 71 68, S Soderberg (Swe) 67 72,
140 A Rai (Eng) 70 70, R Hjelm (Den) 69 71, D Huizing (Ned) 71 69, G King (Eng) 71 69, J Arnoy (Nor) 69 71, M Iten (Sui) 71 69, A Saddier (Fra) 71 69, S Connor (Eng) 71 69, C Koepka (USA) 71 69,
141 H Casey (Eng) 72 69, S Fernandez (Esp) 70 71, J Pastor (Esp) 69 72, S Jeppesen (Swe) 71 70, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 69 72, L Galliano (Sui) 68 73, J Senior (Eng) 68 73, N Ravano (Ita) 72 69, B Hellgren (Swe) 69 72, F Maccario (Ita) 73 68, A Tadini (Ita) 71 70, C Braeunig (Ger) 74 67, S Einhaus (Ger) 71 70, H Joannes (Bel) 69 72, S Surry (Eng) 70 71, E España (Fra) 69 72, M Schneider (Ger) 69 72,
142 V Østerby (Den) 70 72, C Sordet (Fra) 71 71, D Berna Manzanares (Esp) 70 72, J Makitalo (Fin) 72 70, J Edfors (Swe) 68 74, D Law (Sco) 69 73, K Phelan (Irl) 70 72, J McLeary (Sco) 69 73, A Wennstam (Swe) 73 69,
143 W Harrold (Eng) 71 72, M Frost (Eng) 71 72, D Gaunt (Aus) 70 73, R McCarthy (Aus) 73 70, M Simonsen (Den) 73 70, R Dinwiddie (Eng) 71 72, H Rönneblad (Swe) 72 71, K Eriksson (Swe) 73 70, F Bergamaschi (Ita) 71 72, T Cruz (Por) 71 72,
144 P Mejow (Ger) 70 74, D Suchan (Cze) 71 73, B Åkesson (Swe) 71 73, J Thomson (Eng) 71 73, G Boyd (Eng) 70 74, A Turner (Eng) 71 73, R Kellett (Sco) 72 72, C Del Moral (Esp) 69 75, R James (Wal) 71 73, N Lindstrom (Swe) 68 76, M Baldwin (Eng) 75 69,
145 M Eggenberger (Sui) 71 74, M Laskey (Wal) 76 69, D Foos (Ger) 72 73, C Griffiths (Eng) 69 76, A Schwartz (Fra) 72 73, R Evans (Eng) 69 76, P Nic (Cze) 73 72, M Trappel (Aut) 69 76, B Rusch (Sui) 70 75, O Lieser (Cze) 71 74, J Carlota (Por) 76 69,
146 C Aronsen (Nor) 69 77, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 72 74, C Lutton (Sco) 73 73, T Shadbolt (Eng) 76 70, C Blomstrand (Swe) 73 73, R Davies (Wal) 71 75, B Paolini (USA) 70 76,
147 J Heath (Eng) 72 75, J Vecchi Fossa (Ita) 72 75, J Cafourek (Cze) 70 77, R Charania (Ken) 77 70, C Suk (Cze) 74 73, F Mruzek (Cze) 72 75, M Kramer (Ger) 72 75, C Ford (Eng) 71 76, T Yamac (am) (Tur) 75 72,
148 M Lampert (Ger) 75 73, A Altuntas (Tur) 72 76, N Geyger (Chi) 75 73, J Girrbach (Sui) 77 71,
149 S Piaget (Mon) 72 77, S Grant (Irl) 75 74, F Raza (am) (Cze) 74 75,
150 J Kunzenbacher (Ger) 74 76, A Korinek (Cze) 76 74, M Brezovsky (am) (Svk) 73 77,
151 P Tarver-Jones (Eng) 74 77, V Riu (Fra) 75 76, H Lipsanen (Fin) 77 74,
152 L Robinson (Eng) 75 77, J Friesz (Svk) 79 73, P Gal (Cze) 74 78, K Kulokorpi (Fin) 73 79,
154 L Tintera (Cze) 71 83, L Acikalin (am) (Tur) 73 81,
156 P Dedek (Cze) 77 79, A Pavan (Ita) 76 80,
157 R Kumpost (am) (Cze) 80 77,
158 E Kemaloglu (Tur) 79 79,
** J Maurer (Aut) 72 DQ, S Benson (Eng) 70 RT, S Hodgson (Eng) 74 DQ, C Berardo (Fra) RT 0
