On Friday at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, Angel Hidalgo shot a 4-under 67 and will enter the weekend with a four-shot lead over Joe Dean at the Spanish Open.
Hidalgo, who held the pole position after round one too, finished his second day in Madrid with 12 pars, one bogey and five birdies, highlighted by three in a four-hole span (Nos. 8, 10 and 11), en route to a 10-under par halftime score.
“Well, completely different,” said Hildago when asked to compare his opening rounds. “I would say, I already said to my caddie, I feel every shot today. Yesterday, I was completely blind and I was just hitting the ball and I don’t know why it was directly to the pin.
“But today I played really good. Today I played really good. Two bad drivers to finish the round on 4 and 7, two pretty easiest, probably, the birdie chances from the back nine for me today.
“But yeah, really happy with the way I play, and yeah, it’s good.”
He added, “I need to play good from the tee. Especially this week, the rough is not the same on every part, so you can have a really luck or bad luck, so you are in position with the preferred lies, is a big advantage. Yeah, being in position is important this week.”
Dean (65) signed for a wild card which included three bogeys, two eagles, and five birdies. The 30-year-old Englishman’s round was highlighted by a three-hole stretch of birdie-eagle-birdie Nos. 13-15.
“Yeah, it’s been great,” said Dean. “Par 5s have been very good to me. So yeah, felt a little scrappy in places. But yeah, overall, a great day.”
Jon Rahm (69) and Patrick Reed (66) headlined a group of five players tied for third on 5 under.
Despite his high position on the leaderboard, Rahm was not happy with his second round.
“It’s a little frustrating after such good work yesterday in the heavy winds to not take advantage of the easier conditions today, especially the first — my first 11 holes, barely any wind,” said Rahm. “Did a little bit of a good job early, but I just couldn’t get the round going.
“Overall, everything just felt one or two levels below what I would have liked to feel. Wasn’t really quite comfortable all day on the course. But there’s a couple moments where I still had some good swings and making that eagle putt was something that kind of renewed the energy in me for the rest of the round. But just a few too many mistakes, I would say, in general, but a lot of the short irons, like missing the green on 12, missing the green on 18, 5, hitting it 40 feet long, missing the green on 7 with a 9-iron being a par 5 and missing the green on 8 as well.
“There’s too many short irons, I’m not saying I need to hit it close but to have a look at birdie makes a big difference.”
Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (67), Sam Bairstow (70), and Julien Guerrier (70) were the others in the T3 grouping.
Tommy Fleetwood (69), Jimmy Walker (68), David Puig (69), and Adri Arnaus (70) were tied on 4 under, and rounded out the top 10 leaders at halftime.
2024 Spanish Open
Top-10 Leaders: Round 2
Pos-Player-To Par (Score)
1. Angel Hidalgo -10 (-4)
2. Joe Dean -6 (-6)
3. Patrick Reed -5 (-5)
3. Alfredo Garcia-Heredia -5 (-4)
3. Jon Rahm -5 (-2)
3. Sam Bairstow -5 (-1)
3. Julien Guerrier -5 (-1)
8. Jimmy Walker -4 (-3)
8. David Puig -4 (-2)
8. Tommy Fleetwood -4 (-2)
8. Adri Arnaus -4 (-1)
