Rafa Cabrera Bello and Adri Arnaus share the halfway lead in the Mutuactivos Open de Espana as home players occupied the top four places at Club de Campo in Madrid.
Cabrera Bello, who has yet to drop a shot this week, added a second round of 65 to his opening 66 to finish 11 under par alongside Arnaus, who looked set to hold the outright lead until a bogey on the last in his 66.
World number 1,413 Samuel Del Val is just a shot off the lead after a superb 65, with world number five and defending champion Jon Rahm a stroke further back on nine under following a 67, making it an all-Spanish top four.
However, it was a bad few days for the Irish contingent as all three missed the cut. Paul Dunne’s second round 73 left him at six over, in a tie for 115th and possibly set to drop outside the top-110 on the Race to Dubai which is the cut-off point for players to automatically keep their card at the end of the season.
Michael Hoey finished at the same mark after a 75 while Gavin Moynihan was four over after a second round 72 with the cut falling at level par.
At the top of the leaderboard Cabrera Bello, whose last European Tour title came in the 2017 Scottish Open, said: “You don’t get to go bogey-free very often and to do it two days in a row, I don’t know how many times I’ve done that.
“I’m obviously very pleased with the way I’m playing. I’m feeling very confident out there, in control of my game and when I get into trouble my resources manage to save par.”
Cabrera Bello played alongside Arnaus and Rahm in the first two rounds and added: “Yesterday was like a dream day and today we had it again. I think we’re minus 31 for the three of us which is remarkable.
“We’ve just been feeding off each other and the crowd. To have thousands of people cheering for us has been really cool.”
Del Val, who carded seven birdies and a solitary bogey in his 65, is contesting his 22nd tournament in the space of 28 weeks as he tries to secure his playing rights somewhere for next season.
“I felt like I controlled both rounds really well, didn’t really make many mistakes,” the 32-year-old said. “I had the putter going both days and I’m in a really good position for the weekend.
“I didn’t feel like the course would suit my game too well but I’ve been smart around it, I’ve left the ball on the right side of the greens so the ups and downs were not as hard. It seems like it’s been easy golf so far.
“I think it’s going to be a great weekend, having the Spaniards on top of the leaderboard hopefully brings even more people out on a great golf course.”
England’s Ross Fisher is six shots off the lead after recording back-to-back eagles in his 68, just a fortnight after making the first albatross on the 18th at Wentworth during the BMW PGA Championship.
Fisher, who also made eagles on the fourth and 14th on day one, holed from six feet for eagle on the par-five seventh — his 16th hole of the day — and then spun his approach to the next back into the hole for an eagle two.
“I was flag hunting on the last there trying to go three in a row,” Fisher said. “I know I’ve had a nice run of birdies in a row but I’d be surprised if I’ve done back to back eagles.”
Spanish Ryder Cup star Sergio Garcia is seven shots off the lead after carding a second consecutive 69.
Collated second round scores in the European Tour Open de Espana, Club de Campo, Villa de Madrid, Madrid, Spain (British unless stated, par 71):
131 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 65 66, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 66 65
132 Samuel Del Val (Spa) 67 65
133 Jon Rahm (Spa) 66 67
134 Zander Lombard (Rsa) 67 67
135 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 67 68, Marcel Siem (Ger) 66 69, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 65
136 Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor) 63 73, Steven Brown 68 68, Per Langfors (Swe) 68 68, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 67 69, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 69 67
137 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 66 71, Ross Fisher 69 68, Jack Singh Brar 68 69, Jamie Donaldson 66 71, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 70 67, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 67 70
138 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 69 69, Nick McCarthy 70 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 69 69, Jake McLeod (Aus) 68 70, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 70 68, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 69 69
139 Ben Evans 71 68, Alejandro Larrazabal (Spa) 70 69, Ashun Wu (Chn) 68 71, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 70 69, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 68 71, Jeff Winther (Den) 70 69, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 71 68, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 73 66, Borja Virto (Spa) 70 69, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 70 69, Alexander Levy (Fra) 70 69
140 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 68, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 73, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 71 69, Ryan Lumsden 70 70, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 70 70, Joel Girrbach (Swi) 73 67, James Morrison 70 70
141 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 67 74, Anton Karlsson (Swe) 70 71, Justin Harding (Rsa) 69 72, S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 70 71, David Horsey 71 70, Brett Rumford (Aus) 70 71, David Drysdale 69 72, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 66 75, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 73, Eduardo De La Riva (Spa) 68 73, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 69, David Lipsky (USA) 68 73, Justin Walters (Rsa) 69 72, Calum Hill 69 72, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 70 71
142 Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 72 70, Clement Sordet (Fra) 74 68, Matthew Nixon 67 75, Grant Forrest 73 69, Lee Slattery 69 73, Julian Suri (USA) 72 70, Andres Romero (Arg) 76 66, Chris Hanson 68 74, Johannes Veerman (USA) 71 71, John Catlin (USA) 71 71
The following players missed the halfway cut:
143 Lasse Jensen (Den) 71 72, Daniel Berna manzanares (Spa) 71 72, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 68 75, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 73 70, Daniel Gavins 71 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 73, Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Spa) 71 72, Haotong Li (Chn) 74 69, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 72 71, Max Orrin 70 73, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 72 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 70
144 Javier Colomo (Spa) 69 75, Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita) 71 73, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 68 76, Nicolai Tinning (Den) 72 72, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 71 73, Antonio Hortal (Spa) 71 73, David Cooke (USA) 70 74, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 72 72, Kim Koivu (Fin) 72 72, Max Schmitt (Ger) 72 72, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 70 74, Sean Crocker (USA) 76 68
145 Hugo Leon (Chi) 72 73, Jacobo Pastor Lopez (Spa) 74 71, Nick Cullen (Aus) 71 74, Emilio Cuartero Blanco (Spa) 72 73, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 67 78, Pedro Oriol (Spa) 70 75, Mario Galiano Aguilar (Spa) 69 76, Scott Gregory 71 74
146 Espen Kofstad (Nor) 76 70, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 74 72, Oliver Wilson 74 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 73 73, Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 74 72, Tom Murray 70 76, Jose Luis Adarraga Gomez (Spa) 70 76, Nicolai Hojgaard (Den) 71 75
147 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 70 77, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 73 74, David Howell 75 72, (a) Alejandro Del Rey (Spa) 74 73, (a) Koen Kouwenaar (Ned) 73 74, Austin Connelly (Can) 76 71
148 Liam Johnston 73 75, Paul Dunne (Irl) 75 73, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 76 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 76 72, Renato Paratore (Ita) 71 77, Michael Hoey (NIrl) 73 75, Ross McGowan 73 75
149 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 73 76, Marc Warren 74 75, Stuart Manley 76 73, David Borda (Spa) 73 76, Charlie Saxon (USA) 75 74, Juan Salama (Spa) 71 78
150 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 79 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 76 74
151 Romain Wattel (Fra) 76 75, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 75 76
152 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 77 75, Jamie Abbott 79 73
154 (a) Victor Pastor (Spa) 76 78
155 Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 78 77
