They say if you don’t succeed at first, try again. And a new day brought much better fortunes for Rikuya Hoshino at the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid.
After opening with a six-over-par 77 on Thursday, the Japanese bounced back in style with a near flawless 62 in the second round to catapult him into the mix at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.
Hoshino’s first round included two double bogeys, while Friday saw him card ten birdies, with a bogey at the par-three ninth – his final hole – denying him the chance to match the course record of 61.
His 15-shot swing might just be a case of 'that’s just golf'. From languishing towards the bottom of the leaderboard, he climbed 120 places and now finds himself seven shots adrift of impressive halfway pacesetter Angel Hidalgo at three under.
But, perhaps, his recovery should come as no surprise.
A winner for the first time on the DP World Tour at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in February, Hoshino has five further top tens, and he sits 11th on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex.
That means the 27-year-old is in possession of one of the ten PGA TOUR cards on offer for players through the season-long rankings.
A good weekend will go a long way to boosting his bid to claim dual membership status, and he will hope to produce the form of Friday rather than Thursday to give himself a chance of playing his way into contention for a second DP World Tour title.
