Thomas Aiken carded one of his best rounds in a long while on Friday when a five-under-par 66 lifted him into a share of 18th after the second round of the DP World Tour’s acciona Open de Espana at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid in Spain.
Aiken made an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys to move to six-under-par for the tournament, five strokes behind the leader. France’s Matthieu Pavon maintained his hold on the top of the leaderboard with a three-under-par 68 taking him to 11-under for the tournament and a one-stroke lead over Wil Besseling of the Netherlands and India’s Shubhankar Sharma.
Aiken’s eagle came on the par-five seventh when he chipped in from the rough short and right of the green after he pushed his 245-yard approach 18 yards from the pin. His dropped shots both came from poor tee-shots – on the 10th with a drive that found a fairway bunker, and on the 11th with a tee-shot on a 200-yard par-three that was pulled 28 yards left of the pin.
Aiken shared 18th with Zander Lombard and Deon Germishuys, who each signed for one-under-par 70.
Daniel van Tonder carded his second-successive two-under 69 to be on four-under in a share of 34th. Thriston Lawrence and Louis de Jager were a shot back on three-under in a share of 45th. Wilco Nienaber made the cut on the number at two-under after a second round of level-par 71.
Oliver Bekker, JC Ritchie, Hennie du Plessis, Bryce Easton and Justin Walters all missed the cut.
