Borja Virto will take a one stroke lead into the weekend of the Kaskáda Golf Challenge after carding a five under par round of 66 on day two at Kaskáda Golf Resort in the Czech Republic.
The Spaniard registered five birdies in a faultless front nine and added another on the par five 15th before his only bogey of the day came on the 18th.
The 32-year-old will go in search of a maiden Challenge Tour win over the weekend but will have to do so with overnight leader Lorenzo Scalise just one shot back on ten under par.
Virto was delighted with his fast start before managing the blustery conditions well after reaching the turn.
“I played pretty solid golf and had a good start being five under on the front nine,” he said. “I hit it close a few times and I holed a couple of long putts. I wasn’t expecting it, but I played well.
“The wind was picking up a little bit, and I felt the back nine was playing a lot tougher, so I was making pars but they felt like good pars. It wasn’t nice finishing with a bogey, but overall it was a really good day.”
The Spaniard, who currently sits 33rd in the Road to Mallorca Rankings, admits he altered his game plan from day one due to the challenging conditions in Brno this week.
“My long game has been really solid, so I think that’s why I’ve been able to score. I also haven’t been in trouble much, especially today.
“There’s just a couple of holes that I’m laying up on where I went for the green yesterday, like hole ten which I ended up laying up on today. I feel like the course is playing tough so I needed to be a bit more defensive than I usually like, but it’s working, so I’ll keep doing the same.”
Fellow Spaniard Manuel Elvira is in third place on seven under par, with eight players sharing fourth on six under par including Austrian Niklas Regner, Danish duo Lucas Bjerregaard and Nicolai Kristensen, Swede Christofer Blomstrand, German Allen John, South African Martin Vorster, Spaniard David Borda and Australian Connor McKinney
Elsewhere, Czech amateur Louis Klein made history, with rounds of 71-71 seeing him become the youngest player to make a cut on the Challenge Tour at the age of 13 years, nine months and 24 days.
The third round gets under way at 8:00am local time with Virto teeing it up alongside Scalise and Elvira at 9:50am.
