The second round of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters witnessed a piece of European Tour history being made with a first ever nine-way tie for the halfway lead.
As the famous Doha wins finally started to blow, overnight leader Bradley Dredge followed up his scintiallting opening round of 64 with a more sedate level par 72 to reach 8 under 136. He was joined by Mikko Korhonen (71), Jorge Campillo (67), Nacho Elvira (69), Andy Sullivan (68), Thomas Aiken (68), Jaco Van Zyl (69), Jeunghun Wang (67) and Kiradech Aphibarnrat (70).
The phenomenal leaderboard log-jam beats the previous record of eight players who were tied after 36 holes of the 1997 Volvo Scandianvian Masters.
Spain’s Campillo roared out of the blocks after starting on the tenth tee, playing the Championship Course’s back nine in 32 strokes but was only able to pick up one more shot on the front nine with a birdie on his final hole, the ninth, as he signed for 5 under par 67.
“It was windier today,” said the 30 year old who is still searching for his first win on the European Tour. “I played solid – missed quite a few fairways, but they were in play all the time and I putted good. So it was a good round.”
Korea’s Wang, one of the last men in, had a great chance to break away from the pack but his birdie putt at the last slipped inches past the cup minutes after he had almost chipped in from the greenside bunker.
“I actually I hit it well today,” said Wang whose 5 under par round included six birdies with just one blemish on his card on the par three third hole. “On the front nine, my putting was really good so I made a lot of birdies. I feel really good right now. I just want to keep going.
“It’s my first time playing here and I thought when I played a practice round, it feels like really hard course. But when I’m playing the tournament, not really. So I feel good.”
There was almost as much congestion a shot further back with seven players tied for tenth on 7 under par 137. Englishman Jordan Smith was the best of the bunch, firing a spectacular 6 under par 66 as he hunts down his maiden European Tour title.
A @EuropeanTour first…
We have a nine (yes nine!) way tie for the lead after 36 holes. pic.twitter.com/fQYjKI6K1U
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 27, 2017
“It’s pretty bunched at the top there,” said Smith who topped last season’s Road to Oman Rankings on the European Challenge Tour. “I saw where the cut line was and it sort of stayed there. I’m getting ready for the weekend now.”
Joining Smith at 7 under par were Anthony Wall (69), Chris Hanson (69), Lucas Bjerregaard (68), Daniel Im (69), Paul Dunne (70) and Simon Dyson (70).
As we head into ‘moving day’ with everything still to play, for the 20thCommercial Bank Qatar Masters is set up perfectly for a mouth-watering finale.
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