Borja Virto Astudillo was happy with his performance heading into the weekend at the Trophée Hassan II as he sat just one shot off the lead at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.
Only 24 players will head into Saturday under par as the narrow, long Red Course presented a major challenge, but the Spaniard was able to follow his opening 69 with a 70 to sit at five under, just a shot behind Francesco Laporta.
Back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th saw Virto Astudillo hit the top of the leaderboard early but he gave those shots back with bogeys on the first and the third. He then bounced back with a long putt for birdie on the fifth and another gain on the seventh handed him the clubhouse lead but he was overturned by the Italian in the afternoon.
"I played well again today," he said. "The back nine is probably a little easier, and I was two under at the turn so it was a good start. Then I three-putted the first and made another bogey on the third, so it was a difficult start to my back nine, but I managed to get the shots back so overall I'm very happy.
"I like tight courses, because my driving is normally pretty straight. But I'm not the furthest hitter, so this course is maybe a little too long for my game. But I still really like it."
Zander Lombard is a shot behind Virto Astudillo but the South African had been seven under before dropping three shots in his last three holes as he lost control off the tee.
"You've really got to hit the fairways or you're cooked," he said. "I hit a few wayward drives early on in my round, but managed to keep the big numbers off my card.
"The eighth is a tough hole, almost 500 yards into the wind, and I tried to hit my drive too hard. It went left and I had to chip out, then I made a three-putt to compound the mistake. So that was disappointing but the rest of the round was really solid."
Daniel Im is also four under after a 69 as his rollercoaster of a season continues. The American has three top tens but also five missed cuts this term, and was happy to be striking the ball well again.
Hopefully I can get it going over the weekend and do something special to really kick-start my season - Daniel Im
"I got off to a pretty solid start, and hit the ball well for much of the day. Yesterday I hit six birdies and five bogeys, so I tried to cut out the mistakes today and for the most part I managed to do that."
