Dutchman Luiten leads Valderrama Masters

 by one with a 67

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Joost Luiten carded the first ever albatross in tournament play on Real Club Valderrama’s 11^th hole to move into the halfway lead at the Andalucia Valderrama Masters hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.

The Dutchman’s incredible feat - the fifth albatross on the European Tour this year and just the third in tournament play at this venue - was almost made even more remarkable when he came to within inches of finding the cup for a hole-in-one on the following hole.

In the end, Luiten signed for a one under par 70 to move to a six under total, moving a shot clear of Scott Jamieson, Robert Rock and the tournament host Garcia.

The Masters Champion shared the first round lead with Luiten but could not follow up his opening 66 with an under par second round, carding a level par 71 to give the home crowds plenty to shout about at the weekend.

Scot Jamieson had three birdies in the space of four holes on the front nine to thank for his impressive three under 68 in breezy conditions on the notoriously challenging course, while Rock boosted his hopes of a third European Tour title with a one under 70.

Apart from Jamieson, the only Scot to beat the cut was rookie Connor Syme from Drumoig. He had a second-round 70 for 145, qualifying for the weekend action with a stroke to spare.

Aberdonian David Law had a disastrous second-round 80, nine strokes more than his opening effort.

 

WHAT THE LEADERS SAID

Joost Luiten

“I hit a good drive and had 291 metres to the flag, just in the semi-rough but it was sitting up nicely. The wind was helping a bit and I just hit a good four iron and it pitched a couple of yards onto the green and all of a sudden you hear the crowd go crazy.

“I couldn’t see it from where I was because you couldn’t see the surface of the green but it’s always nice to get an albatross. It’s very special.

“The next hole, a par three, I hit a five iron straight at the pin and it pitched three foot short. I couldn’t see if it clipped the pin or not but I rolled in for a birdie and that’s what you want, when you’re hot you want to keep it going.

“I'm happy with the way I played. I finished second last year, so I like this place. Hopefully we can have a good weekend and we can win here but there's a lot of golf to be played and we just need to focus tomorrow and have another good round.

“I think it will play a bit shorter off the tee, it will be a bit harder maybe to hit the fairways if they're going to run off but it's still fairly soft, you can still be aggressive into the pins but you've got to hit the fairways and that's the game-plan for the weekend. I think ten under will be a good number.”

Sergio Garcia

“I feel like I could have shot probably two or three under but it was tough out there this afternoon. It was a little bit breezy, the fairways were starting to firm up a little bit, some of the pins were difficult to get to and unfortunately because of all the rain the greens in the afternoon were a tiny bit bumpy.

“At the end of the day even par is not a bad round here with a bit of wind so we're still there. Both up-and-downs on 17 and 18 to finish will leave a little of a better feeling than the three-putt on 16 and hopefully we can keep going in that direction tomorrow.

“We'll just ice it (wrist) a little bit and put that anti-inflammation patch that I have and hopefully it will be fine tomorrow."

Scott Jamieson

“I’m delighted with that. Anything under par around here, most people would sign up for before they tee off and especially in the tricky conditions today with the breeze blowing.

“I didn’t do too much wrong on the second, I thought I’d hit a perfect tee shot but I was right behind a tree and that’s what you get out here. You’ve got to expect it. From there I was able to pick up some birdies.

“It just requires so much patience out here. You’re going to hit some good shots that put you in a really tricky spot and then you’ve got to make a decision, there’s a lot of risk-reward, so you can take your medicine and say bogey is the worst I want to make here. It’s about calculating when you want to take the risks or not.

“Coming into this week I knew I needed a good one to try and get into the final few events – I’m touch and go for the first one in Turkey as it stands – so hopefully a strong weekend and that’ll take care of it.”

Robert Rock

“I've played better than one under just threw stupid shots away from the edge of the green that are pretty basic so it's annoying but it's a good two days. I'll reflect later on and think it's alright. There was just a little bit more wind on occasion that made certain shots quite tricky.

“I'm happy with that, I've played good. I haven't had many opportunities in my career where I should have been a few ahead, maybe, and you kick yourself when you don't make the most of that. There are some great players on the leaderboard and it would be nice to have a few extra shots on them come the weekend but I'll take it.”

 

 

SECOND-ROUND SCORES

Par 142 (2x71)

136 J Luiten (Ned) 66 70, 
 137 S Jamieson (Sco) 69 68, R Rock (Eng) 67 70, S Garcia (Spn) 66 71,
138 B Evans (Eng) 69 69,
139 O Wilson (Eng) 69 70, R Gouveia (Portugal) 69 70, 140 P Peterson (USA) 68 72, P Larrazábal (Spn) 67 73, J Donaldson (Wales) 73 67, A Hansen (Denmark) 70 70, E Molinari (Ita) 69 71, A Johnston (Eng) 69 71,
141 R Jacquelin (Fra) 71 70, R Bland (Eng) 70 71,
142 D Brooks (Eng) 70 72, S Soderberg (Swe) 73 69, M Kaymer (Ger) 70 72, A Cañizares (Spn) 72 70, A Connelly (Canada) 73 69, A Plant (Eng) 70 72, R Finch (Eng) 69 73, R Dinwiddie (Eng) 71 71, D Willett (Eng) 70 72, S Lowry (Ire) 72 70, A Otaegui (Spn) 71 71,
143 S Kjeldsen (Den) 72 71, W Ormsby (Aus) 73 70, A Sullivan (Eng) 71 72, J Morrison (Eng) 69 74, P Waring (Eng) 71 72, L Slattery (Eng) 72 71, M Wallace (Eng) 71 72, B Ritthammer (Ger) 75 68, A Wu (Chin) 72 71,
144 M Manassero (Ita) 70 74, T Detary (Bel) 72 72, P Angles (Spn) 75 69, P Hanson (Swe) 69 75, A Rai (Eng) 70 74, J Fahrbring (Swe) 73 71, L Jensen (Denmark) 70 74, J Lima (Portugal) 72 72,
145 C Syme (Sco) 75 70, A Karlsson (Swe) 73 72, O Fisher (Eng) 72 73, N Bertasio (Ita) 74 71, J Scrivener (Australia) 70 75, P Harrington (Ire) 72 73, M Foster (Eng) 73 72, R Paratore (Ita) 77 68, J Walters (SAf) 71 74,
146 F Aguilar (Chile) 70 76, J Suri (USA) 73 73, A Chesters (Eng) 72 74, C Hanson (Eng) 72 74, F Fritsch (Ger) 71 75, S Crocker (USA) 73 73, Z Lombard (SAf) 75 71, D Perrier (Fra) 74 72, C Pigem (Spn) 73 73, J Campillo (Spn) 73 73, A Romero (Arg) 71 75, B Dredge (Wales) 73 73, A Knappe (Ger) 74 72,

MISSED THE CUT

147 P Widegren (Swe) 75 72, J Parry (Eng) 74 73, N Elvira (Spn) 73 74, M Jonzon (Swe) 75 72, G Fdez-Castaño (Spn) 71 76,
148 E De La Riva (Spn) 74 74, R Wattel (Fra) 74 74, R Karlsson (Swe) 76 72, C Paisley (Eng) 75 73, J Lagergren (Swe) 75 73, M Kieffer (Ger) 76 72, R Green (Australia) 75 73,
149 S Webster (Eng) 71 78, D Stewart (Sco) 75 74, S Tiley (Eng) 76 73, S Manley (Wales) 72 77, S Khan (Eng) 72 77, J Olazábal (Spn) 77 72, M Nixon (Eng) 74 75, D Im (USA) 76 73, J Rahm (Spn) 74 75, N Johansson (Swe) 76 73, N Fasth (Swe) 75 74, A Björk (Swe) 78 71, G Boyd (Eng) 75 74,
150 N Kimsey (Eng) 73 77, M Siem (Ger) 73 77, S Gros (Fra) 75 75, S Gallacher (Sco) 77 73, M Korhonen (Finland) 73 77, M Armitage (Eng) 72 78, G Bourdy (Fra) 75 75, G Stal (Fra) 76 74, L Canter (Eng) 73 77, R Echenique (Arg) 76 74,
151 M Ilonen (Finland) 76 75, S Henry (Sco) 77 74, S Dyson (Eng) 74 77, D Law (Sco) 71 80,
152 J Stalter (Fra) 76 76, C Lee (Sco) 74 78, G King (Eng) 77 75, D Howell (Eng) 77 75,
153 M Carlsson (Swe) 79 74, G Hurley (Irl) 80 73, T Lewis (Eng) 77 76, R Langasque (Fra) 76 77,
154 S Walker (Eng) 78 76, A Quiros (Spn) 74 80, M Pastor (Esp) 81 73,
155 J Edfors (Swe) 77 78, J Garcia Pinto (Spn) 81 74, A Velasco (Spn) 78 77,
156 J Rutherford (Eng) 75 81, A Maestroni (Ita) 74 82,
157 J Quesne (Fra) 79 78,
158 P Maddy (Eng) 78 80,
159 G Havret (Fra) 79 80,
160 J Carlsson (Swe) 81 79,
** S Del Val (Spn) 75 WD, R Gonzalez (Arg) 69 RT,