Matthieu Pavon continued his impressive performance at the Acciona Open de Espana presented by Madrid, maintaining his spot at the top of the leaderboard for the second consecutive day. He currently holds a one-shot lead after two rounds at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid. The Frenchman posted a three-under 69, featuring four birdies and one solitary bogey during his second round.
“It looks like it is really a place that suits my game. Like I said yesterday, a lot of memories from last year and I feel really comfortable on the course. I see the shots quickly with the yardages I have got and obviously today was a strange day, it could have been much better when I started stronger, but it could have been much worse also, so I am just very pleased with today,” said Pavon.
Beginning on the tenth tee, Pavon sustained a steady performance with seven-straight pars before encountering a bogey on the par three 17th hole. However, he quickly regained momentum after making the turn, as he recorded four birdies including consecutive ones on 17 and 18, taking him into the clubhouse at -11 overall.
“I know that I putt great this week and that I would have a couple of chances on the back nine because there are two par fives, so I just tried to stay patient and wait for one putt to drop. This is what happened on the second for par, and suddenly everything clicked in a little bit and I had some momentum,” said Pavon.
India’s Shubhankar Sharma carded a five-under 66 for the second-consecutive day to lie in second place with Dutchman Wil Besseling. Notably, both players have achieved top-ten finishes in this event in 2021, with Sharma finishing tied for third and Besseling tying for sixth.
“This is a very old school course, something that I grew up on back home in India, so finding fairways is a premium here and I have been doing that this whole season,” Sharma said. “I am not a stats guy and I don’t look at it very much but I have been finding more fairways which is great. I guess that is why there have been more birdie opportunities, more balls on the fairway, so hopefully will continue that on the weekend.”
75 players made the cut at two-under par and are advancing to the weekend at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid. This includes defending champion Jon Rahm (T45), 2021 champion Rafa Cabrera-bello (T45), and 2013 U.S. Open Champion Justin Rose (T34).
