Paul Dunne moved clear of the field on Friday in his bid to become the fifth Irish golfer to claim victory in the Spanish Open.
One of the early starters in Madrid, Dunne carded a seven-under 65 to follow his opening 66 at Centro Nacional de Golf and move to 13 under and go three shots clear of a trio of golfers after the morning session.
Spain’s Nacho Elvira and Australia’s Brett Rumford both carded 66s to get to 10 under, while England’s Callum Shinkwin posted a 67 to join them.
Of the afternoon players, Jon Rahm came closest to narrowing the gap on Dunne but he was derailed by a double bogey six at the Par 4 12th on his way to carding a round of 68 to sit at nine under going into the weekend.
Dunne’s playing partners Eddie Pepperell and Pablo Larrazabal were also in top form and remarkably all three golfers shot 65s, Larrabal moving to eight under and Pepperell making it to two under but ultimately missing the cut after an opening 77.
Another man to miss the cut was Ireland’s Gavin Moynihan whose struggles continue on the European Tour. Since earning his full playing rights last November, the Donabate man has failed to make a cut on tour and a second round of 74 to finish at two over par in Madrid will have done little to improve his spirits.
Starting on the back nine, Dunne opened with a birdie on the Pa 5 10th and added three more birdies to turn in four-under 32 to go to 10 under.
He birdied the Par 5 first hole for the second day running, but also suffered his second straight bogey on the second.
Dunne got on a hot streak with three straight birdies from the fifth, dropped his second shot of the day on the eighth after a three-putt before sinking a 25-foot putt on the ninth to finish his day in style.
While admitting that the late-early tee-times were an advantage, Dunne said his good kind of crept up on him.
“It was just one of those days, I just went on playing, I wasn’t really thinking about the score and the score kind of built on itself,” he told Sky Sports. “It turns out all three of us in the group shot seven under, so it was an enjoyable day.
“Obviously the conditions are a lot better, they were better greens this morning than we had yesterday. The score was out there and all three of us shot it.
“I think those late-early starts are great when you’re playing well, you know you feel good about your game, the short turnaround is nice, you finish your round, a bit of dinner and straight to bed and you’re up and going again. I think I benefited from that a little bit, but a bit of a longer wait now.
“But the game is in good shape, I’m feeling good, feel confident around this course so hopefully a couple of more good rounds and give myself a chance.
“It’s been trending the right way for a while and I have a nice run of events here in Europe over the next few weeks as well so I’m looking forward to that.
“My girlfriend’s flying in tonight so I will grab dinner with her and have a sleep-in tomorrow.”
Dunne is set for extended run of golf in Europe but believes his performances in America, where he had two top 10 finishes, helped bring his game along.
“I was doing a good bit of work about six weeks ago then I saw signs on the course were getting better in Mexico – I didn’t play great – and then a couple of good weeks practice after that in America and it’s nice to see it transfer on to the golf course.
“ I think it’s been trending the right way for a while and then I’ve got a nice run of events in Europe over the next few weeks, so looking forward to that and hopefully just keep doing what I’m doing.”
The Spanish Open has been a particular favourite of Irish golfers, with peter lawrie the most recent winner of the vent back in 2008. The event provided Pádraig Harrington with his breakthrough win back in 1996 at the nearby Club de Campo. Eamonn Darcy won the event in 1983, while Eddie Polland won the event twice, in 1976 and 1980.
Collated second round scores & totals in the European Tour Open de Espana, Centro Nacional de Golf, Madrid, Spain (Par 72, Irish in bold, Britain unless stated)
131 Paul Dunne (Irl) 66 65
134 Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 66, Callum Shinkwin 67 67, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 68 66
135 Robert Rock 70 65, Marc Warren 66 69, Jon Rahm (Esp) 67 68, Henric Sturehed (Swe) 67 68
136 Andrew Johnston 68 68, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 69 67, Jeff Winther (Den) 69 67, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 68 68, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 67 69, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 71 65
137 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 69 68, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 68, Jorge Campillo (Esp) 70 67, Bradley Neil 71 66, Rak hyun Cho (Kor) 73 64, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 67, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 69 68, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 66
138 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 67, Jonathan Thomson 67 71, Aaron Rai 67 71, Felipe Aguilar (Chl) 72 66, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 73 65, Austin Connelly (Can) 72 66, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 67 71, David Howell 72 66, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 71 67, Pep Angles (Esp) 72 66, George Coetzee (Rsa) 72 66, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 67 71, Jason Norris (Aus) 67 71, Andy Sullivan 75 63, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 71 67, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 68 70
139 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 69 70, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 67 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 67, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 69 70, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 70 69, Seung-su Han (USA) 70 69, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 72 67, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 69 70, Gavin Green (Mal) 71 68, Bradley Dredge 71 68, Richie Ramsay 73 66, Charlie Ford 70 69, (a) Victor Pastor (Esp) 67 72, Matthew Baldwin 70 69, Samuel Del Val (Esp) 74 65, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 70 69, Tom Murray 72 67, Pedro Oriol (Esp) 68 71, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 76 63, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 69 70
140 Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 69 71, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 69 71, Ashun Wu (Chn) 70 70, Renato Paratore (Ita) 70 70, Graeme Storm 70 70, Anthony Wall 70 70, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 75 65, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 69 71, David Lipsky (USA) 69 71, Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa) 68 72, Paul Waring 68 72, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 69 71, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 70 70, Sebastien Gros (Fra) 73 67, Stephen Gallacher 70 70, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 73 67
The following players failed to make the cut:
141 Steven Brown 70 71, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 72, Javier Colomo (Esp) 71 70, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 68 73, Scott Jamieson 69 72, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Esp) 73 68, Adri Arnaus (Esp) 71 70, Pontus Widegren (Swe) 71 70, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 73 68, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 72 69, Scott Fernandez (Esp) 71 70, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 70 71, David Drysdale 73 68, Paul Lawrie 76 65, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 74 67, Mark Foster 72 69, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 70 71
142 Nico Geyger (Chl) 73 69, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 73 69, Oliver Fisher 72 70, Laurie Canter 71 71, James Heath 71 71, Connor Syme 70 72, Eddie Pepperell 77 65, Thomas Detry (Bel) 71 71, Julien Quesne (Fra) 70 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 72 70, Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 73 69, Ryan Fox (Nz) 70 72, (a) Billy McKenzie 72 70, Chris Hanson 73 69, Jamie Donaldson 71 71, Santiago Tarrio Ben (Esp) 72 70, Jordan Smith 72 70
143 Ben Evans 71 72, (a) Angel Hidalgo (Esp) 72 71, Daniel Im (USA) 75 68, Matthew Nixon 74 69, Javier Sainz (Esp) 74 69, Nick Cullen (Aus) 72 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 73 70, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 72, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 71 72, Adam Bland (Aus) 71 72, Sam Horsfield 69 74, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 73 70, Eduardo De La Riva (Esp) 72 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 71
144 Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha) 76 68, Richard Bland 72 72, Chase Koepka (USA) 75 69, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 69, Birgir Hafthorsson (Is) 77 67, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 71 73
145 Matt Wallace 69 76, (a) Alejandro del Rey (Esp) 75 70, David Horsey 72 73, Tom Lewis 72 73, Ross McGowan 76 69
146 Lasse Jensen (Den) 74 72, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 74 72, Ashley Chesters 75 71, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 76 70, James Morrison 74 72, Josh Geary (Nz) 74 72, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 74 72, Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 72 74, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 78 68, Oliver Farr 72 74
147 Daniel Brooks 74 73, Florian Fritsch (Ger) 70 77, Daisuke Kataoka (Jpn) 71 76
148 Zander Lombard (Rsa) 72 76, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Esp) 72 76, Carlos Pigem (Esp) 71 77, Lee Slattery 72 76, Soomin Lee (Kor) 71 77
149 Clement Sordet (Fra) 73 76
150 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 78 72, Ryan Evans 70 80
152 Richard McEvoy 75 77
157 Jose Luis Gonzalez Courtney (Esp) 83 74
