While all eyes were on the spectacular group of Rahm, Cabrera and Arnaus, on the other side of the course another member of the Armada, Alicante native Samuel Del Val, who carded an impressive -4 in the first round, was working on a stunning -6 (65) that leaves him one shot behind the leaders.
Seven birdies and a sole bogey are evidence of the quality of golf he is producing this week, with only two blemishes so far in the whole tournament.
The most surprising of all is that, speaking to him in the days leading up to the event he said that this course does not fit his eye, that for some reason he was not comfortable on this Club de Campo Villa de Madrid course, but in golf you never not what is round the corner.
He now faces a completely different challenge to the ones that he has handled with such aplomb on the first two days, as tomorrow he will share the last group with Rafa Cabrera and Adri Arnaus and will be the centre of thousands of people’s attention and under far more pressure.
He appears to be up to the challenge though, as he told us after his round:
