Campillo, Sullivan share Qatar Masters lead

Jorge Campillo and Andy Sullivan share the lead at the halfway stage of the 2020 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

Yesterday at the newly inaugurated Education City Golf course, both fired a second consecutive 66 to get to ten under. They have a host of European Tour winners breathing down their necks heading into the next round.

Spaniard Campillo had a bogey-free round two in the evening session while earlier in the morning session Sullivan took advantage of the low winds in the morning to fire a 66 for the second successive day and get to 10.

“I’ve got it under lock at the moment. I feel like I am control of myself, which is the most important thing for me, I really felt like I took my time a little bit more on shots and stuff. When I have been doing well before I generally rush the shot, maybe try to hit it a bit quickly, so I have been trying to take my time a little bit more and be a bit more composed over the shot trying to hit it to the right areas,” Sullivan said.

“I’ve not been super aggressive the past two days and I have holed a couple of putts to keep me in it, so like I said yesterday, it’s just about being patient and that is what I have been doing the past two days,” he added.

Sullivan said his game had improved.

“I feel like I have grown up a little bit now on the golf course. You know I think that having a laugh on the golf course is all well and good, and I still enjoy it but for me, I have really had to knuckle down the past two days to keep myself in check because there are times when I find myself wondering. It has been difficult, and it is something new for me, trying to keep focused for so long, normally I drift in and out a little bit, but it’s been really good and positive signs as the golf has been really good,” he said.

Campillo, a runner-up in this event at Doha Golf Club last year showed he enjoyed the new course in Qatar too. After carding 66 in round one he matched that tally yesterday.

Campillo said he has been working on his game and that has helped him in getting good scores.

“I’ve worked on a few things over the last week and in Oman. It’s working out good and I’m putting great as well - I’ve been putting awfully lately - and it’s been a great two days,” he said.

“It’s a nice position to be in going into the weekend, hopefully I can play like this and if I do, I’m going to have a good chance to win on Sunday,” he added

The duo is a shot in front of a chasing pack of five. Swede Alexander Björk carded the lowest round of the week and his European Tour career with a course record 63 to sit at nine under alongside countryman Marcus Kinhult, England’s Oliver Fisher, Frenchman Romain Langasque and Dutchman Joost Luiten.

“I have been struggling a lot lately, but I have been starting to feel last week that the game was getting a bit better. I played quite good yesterday but did not get the putts to drop, so I don’t know. I just got in a really good flow from the start, hitting almost every fairway, kind of firing at the pins so it just felt really good,” Björk said.

“I took advantage of the really calm weather and when you feel like the swing is really there, and there is no wind, you can aim at the pins and I got a lot of good chances,” he added.

The Swede said he was it was nice to get the fluency in his game.

“Like I said, I have been coming off quite a tough stretch, so it was a lot of fun to actually feel the flow again, and maybe my best round tee to green since I won two years ago. It was fun to get that feeling again because it was a long time ago.”

Danish trio Nicolai Højgaard, Benjamin Poke and Jeff Winther, South African Darren Fichardt, Scotland’s Scott Jamieson and England’s Jack Senior are three shots off the lead.

India’s SSP Chawrasia along with six others is four shots away from the leaders.

“Happy, with my performance in the second round today. Anything can happen with a few shots separating us from the leaders. Hope to maintain the same level of consistent play on the third day,” Chawrasia said.

There were several big names who did not make it through to the weekend’s action in Qatar, including Germany’s Martin Kaymer. India’s Shubhankar Sharma, Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium, Paul Lawrie of Scotland, Haotong Li of China, and Min Woo Lee of Australia were also among those who failed to make it through to the final two rounds of the tournament.

STANDINGS

132 J Campillo (ESP) 66, 66, A Sullivan (ENG) 66, 66

133 O Fisher (ENG) 69, 64, A Björk (Swe) 70 63, J Luiten (NED) 65, 68, R Langasque (FRA) 69, 64, M Kinhult (Swe) 68, 65

135 J Winther (DEN) 66, 69, B Poke (DEN) 68, 67, N Højgaard (DEN) 64, 71, D Fichardt (RSA) 67, 68, S Jamieson (SCO) 67, 68, J Senior (ENG) 69, 66

136 D Burmester (RSA) 69, 67, L Van Meijel (NED) 70, 66, S Chawrasia

(IND) 67, 69, L Gagli (ITA) 66, 70, T Pieters (BEL) 66, 70, D Coupland

(ENG) 68, 68, D Drysdale (SCO) 67, 69

137 B Hebert (FRA) 67, 70, J Harding (RSA) 70, 67, N Lemke (Swe) 68 69, M Jordan (ENG) 70, 67, F Zanotti (Par) 69, 68, K Moon (Kor) 67, 70, C

Pigem (ESP) 66, 71, K Samooja (Fin) 70, 67

138 W Nienaber (RSA) 68, 70, D Horsey (ENG) 69, 69, T Detry (BEL) 72 66, G Coetzee (RSA) 70, 68, O Farr (Wal) 74, 64, J Smith (ENG) 69, 69, A Rozner (FRA) 69, 69, M Armitage (ENG) 67, 71, C Sordet (FRA) 72, 66

139 G Green (Mas) 70, 69, B Stone (RSA) 71, 68, P Larrazábal (ESP) 72, 67, A Saddier (FRA) 69, 70, Z Lombard (RSA) 70, 69, C Paisley (ENG) 69, 70, G Havret (FRA) 68 71, Y Touhami (Mar) 68 71, J Wang (Kor) 70 69, M Pavon (FRA) 70, 69

140 M Schwab (Aut) 70 70, S Heisele (Ger) 68 72, S Soderberg (Swe) 74, 66, C Sharvin (Nir) 71, 69, B Robinson Thompson (ENG) 72, 68, S Gallacher (SCO) 72, 68, T Lee (Kor) 70, 70, R Macintyre (SCO) 68, 72, M Kieffer (Ger) 69, 71, R Paratore (ITA) 69, 71, T Tree (ENG) 71, 69, A Cañizares (ESP) 71, 69

141 R Rock (ENG) 72, 69, L Canter (ENG) 72, 69, S Crocker (USA) 71, 70, J Scrivener (Aus) 70, 71, S Valimaki (Fin) 70, 71, H Du Plessis (RSA) 72, 69, N Bertasio (ITA) 72, 69, J Guerrier (FRA) 72, 69, H Porteous (RSA) 73, 68, R Ramsay (SCO) 70, 71, J Lagergren (Swe) 70, 71, S Brown (ENG) 71, 70, R Fisher (ENG) 68, 73, J Morrison (ENG) 73, 68, S Kim (USA) 72, 69, M Kawamura (Jpn) 76, 65, P Figueiredo (Por) 70, 71, S Kjeldsen (DEN) 72, 69

SELECTED

152 J Gonnet (FRA) 75, 77, S Al Kaabi (am) (Qat) 79, 73

166 A Al-Shahrani (am) (Qat) 80, 86