The second day of the Estrella Damm NA: Andalucía Masters is completed, the last international tournament on the calendar in Spain, at the Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande, where the great talents of national golf had capital events in their amateur stage, one of them, Jorge Campillo, shot himself on the table. The only Spanish golfer who has played on the PGA Tour this year added a 65 to Thursday’s 64 and leads the tournament with four strokes ahead of his pursuer, the Englishman Daniel Brown, and a total of 15 strokes under par. He had never come like this in his career in a weekend.
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The Cádiz countryside is familiar territory for Campillo, 38 years old. He played it regularly when he was a fan, when his maternal grandfather reminded him that “if you don’t appear in MARCA, you’re nobody”, times when he was a promising young man for his short game, but without the solidity that he now possesses: having Having played only 17 tournaments, he will be in the final of the Race to Dubai.
The man from Cáceres once again played a round without bogeys like on Thursday, although this time with five birdies and an eagle, after holing a chip from 32 meters on his second hole of the day. It was one of the knockout blows along with the putt on hole 4 (the 13th on his course) that he holed from 18 meters, so far away that he didn’t even ask his caddy Jesús Legarrea to remove the flag. After describing a curve he entered to consolidate a lead that allows him to aspire to win his fourth victory in the DP World Tour, the hypothetical first on European soil, since so far he has won in Morocco, Kenya and Qatar.
“There are few days like this, where it seems like everything is easy. But I can also prepare it on the weekend,” said the leader. “In the KLM I was two shots ahead before Saturday and I finished twenty-ninth. I still see everything very far away,” he added.
On the hunt on Friday afternoon, the wind was annoying but not stinky, Jon Rahm went out. The star reduced Thursday’s errors and shot 66 shots, with eight birdies and two bogeys, one on the 18th from just a meter or so. He has placed sixth, like Ángel Hidalgo with whom he shared a match, and with all the options for the weekend. He was touched by a marvelous sequence with five hits in six holes, between the 2nd and the 7th, to then endure the round with three more birdies until he tripled at the 18th.
Jon Rahm (29) in the second round of the Estrella Damm Andalucia Masters
“It bothered me that the only bad swing was the 18th. But with the irons this time I did much better. I left two dice and with the wind it is not easy. Let’s see if the rest of the week I can continue and play the same good and give me a chance on Sunday,” explained the one from Barrika. “Too bad about the last putt. I was a victim of the greens in the afternoon, which were softer.”
The champion of the Acciona Open of Spain, for his part, showed that he is a fantasy golfer. Hidalgo has a wide repertoire of shots, a different player, alien to orthodoxy, fun to a fault. He drops a crosswind wood from the 2nd fairway (par 5) one meter from the flag and seals an eagle. Or a hit from the bunker at 3 (birdie). Or a 10-meter putt (hole 7) or a chip from outside on 10. But then he also misses shots one meter from the hole. His 66 was a spectacle.
“It is important how I reacted to the two bogeys with as many birdies immediately. Very happy because the round was quite difficult. The beginning helped us because Jon and I have been feeding ourselves and it has gone very well for us,” he explained without closing his dream. to add another success in national territory even though Campillo is eight strokes away.
