Marcel Schneider posted a three under par round of 69 to give him a one-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the Swiss Challenge.
The German, who recorded an eleven under par round of 61 yesterday to take control on day one, remained in control after posting seven birdies in his search for his fourth European Challenge Tour title.
During the second round at Golf Saint Apollinaire Spaniard Alejandro Del Rey made professional golf history as he carded a 14 under par round of 58 – recording the lowest-ever score to par on a major golf tour.
The 23-year-old was an astonishing 16 strokes better than his two over par first round of 74, and now makes up a group of just five golfers who have carded rounds of 58 on major tours. Del Rey joins Jim Furyk, Stephan Jäger, Ryo Ishikawa and Kim Seong-hyeon on that list, however each of their rounds were played on par 70 golf courses.“It was just great golf all round,” said Del Rey. “For a round like that you need a couple of good bounces which I got today. I definitely managed to drop some putts out there but I think the key was that my driving was just great today. I hit every fairway super deep and every hole I managed to hit wedges in and managed to hit some chips, it was just a great all round golf performance.”
Taking a share of third on 13 under par is Road to Mallorca Ranked Number Eight Lukas Nemecz who was very content with how he performed today. The Austrian has been in fine form of late, having finished in the top ten at the last three events on the Road to Mallorca in search of his maiden Challenge Tour title.
“It was a very good day,” said Nemecz. “Yesterday I didn’t play very good at the beginning but I finished birdie-eagle, so I completely turned it around and finished on five under. Eight under was nice, I missed a couple of birdie putts on the first three holes so I was a little frustrated there but I just kept playing well and I gave myself a lot of chances today.”
Lauri Ruuska of Finland climbed the leaderboard to join Nemecz on 13 under, having picked himself up from two back-to-back bogeys finishing with an eagle on the 14th and birdies on the 16th and 17th, comfortably sitting above the chasing pack on twelve under including Vierumäki Finnish Challenge winner Marcus Helligkilde.
In a share of ninth place and two shots back from the leader are five players, including Englishman Jonathan Thomson and Alexander Knappe of Germany.
The third round of the Swiss Challenge will begin at 8:30am local time with Schneider teeing it up at 12:30 with Lukas Nemecz and Lauri Ruuska.
