After making European Challenge Tour history with a sparkling round of 60 in Spain last weekend, England’s Andrew Butterfield surged to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of the Open des Volcans Challenge de France after constructing a second round 65 to move into a one shot lead from Frenchman Nicolas Joakimides.
The 33 year old has been in great form of late, setting the lowest round in the Challenge Tour’s 17 year history at the final round of the Open Mahou de Madrid last weekend before taking the lead in France with opening rounds of 68-65.
Butterfield began his second round at the Golf des Volcans on the tenth tee and picked up five birdies over the back nine to turn in just 30 strokes. He continued that great birdie run by picking up a further two strokes at the first and second holes before dropping his first shot of the day at the third. He played his last six holes in level par to move into the lead from Joakimides. France’s Renaud Guillard is a further shot back in third place.
While most golfers practice the ‘one shot at a time’ mantra as often as they can, Butterfield admits that he has been somewhat distracted at the Golf des Volcans this week as he prepares to play at the Open Championship in St Andrews next weekend.
“I played well again today – hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens and made the putts, which is something I have been doing well lately,” he said.
“I am just happy with my golf at the moment. Last week’s 60 in Madrid really gave me a lot of confidence and then I have been nicely distracted by thinking about going to St Andrews next week. It has been strange this week because I have been concentrating on The Open quite a bit, but I think that has helped me to relax and just get on with things, which seems to have worked out nicely so far. I just hope I can continue that into the weekend and then take it to St Andrews next week.”
Joakimides also put together an excellent round of golf, picking up six birdies and giving nothing back to post a second round 65. The Frenchman is making only his second appearance of the year on the Challenge Tour and is hoping for victory this weekend in order to secure a full time place on Europe’s second tour.
“I played very well today – especially my putting which was excellent,” said Joakimides. “I don’t know how many putts I had today because I never do any statistics on the course – I don’t care for statistics and don’t want to know about them. I don’t find them helpful in any way.
“This is my second Challenge Tour event of the season and it would be great to win here as it would allow me to play more on the Challenge Tour. I played in Morocco earlier in the season and managed to finish 13th. I think the Challenge Tour is of a very high standard – the best example of that can be taken from the fact that I finished the Challenge Tour event in Morocco in 13th place with a score of ten under par.
“The next week I won an Alps Tour event in France on a similar course to that which we played in Morocco with exactly the same score of ten under par, so I think that shows the difference between the standards of both tours. The Challenge Tour is stronger and more competitive.”
Welshman Sion Bebb shares fourth place with Argentina’s Miguel Carballo. Frenchman Julien Xanthopoulos, England’s Marcus Higley and Ariel Canete of Argentina are a stroke further back.
