Francesco Laporta leads the Challenge Tour Grand Final at the halfway stage and is in pole position to be crowned Road to Mallorca Number One after a second round of two under par 69 at Club de Golf Alcanada.
The Italian’s round moved him to five under par, one stroke clear of Spain’s Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez and two ahead of Frenchman Robin Sciot-Siegrist.
After 36 holes in Mallorca, current projections show the top 15 would be unchanged if the tournament were to end as it is with Darius van Driel clinging onto the last card, but several players have given themselves a shot of glory with two rounds remaining.
Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson is the man best-placed to break into the graduation spots after his second consecutive level par round of 71 has him in a tie for seventh place heading into the weekend and 16th on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, just 4,854 behind van Driel.
Sebastian Heisele and Matthew Jordan, who have both likely secured their European Tour playing privileges for next year, share fourth place on two under par, while England’s Ross McGowan posted a bogey-free 66 to move into sixth position with a further escalation of the leaderboard in his sights tomorrow.
The low round of the day – and the week so far – belongs to Laurie Canter, who bounced back from an opening round of 80 with a six under par 65 on day two.
Laporta, who earned his first Challenge Tour victory at the Hainan Open last month, said: “It was a bit more windy today. We had the wind for the entire 18 holes, whereas yesterday it came down for around five or six holes.
"It wasn’t easy today – the greens were a bit slower than yesterday and less firm. There were some tough pin positions and the other guys played solid, so it was a good game today.
“Everyone enjoyed the round and we had a good fight. Hopefully we’ll have another good fight tomorrow.
“I’m going to practice a bit this afternoon, then I’m going to go and play PlayStation!”
Sciot-Siegrist, who came into the week in 37th position on the Road to Mallorca, said: “Anything can happen, literally. I know I’m far off in the Rankings and that I need to finish top two or better, but I came here this week knowing that I needed to finish top two and I started to play well a couple weeks ago and then seeing this course, I like this course.
“There are just a lot of things that tell you that something can happen, but it’s the top players on the Challenge Tour playing this week and you know it’s going to be tough but we’ll see."
The third round at Club de Golf Alcanada will begin at 8.30am local time, with the top three of Laporta, Garcia Rodriguez and Sciot-Siegrist making up the final group at 11.05am local time.
