Gary Hurley fired a five-under-par 67 to move inside the top 20 at the HotelPlanner Tour’s Challenge de Catalunya at Fontanals Golf Club in Girona, with Liam Nolan and Max Kennedy also earning weekend work.
Hurley began the day at two-under-par after birdieing five of his final seven holes in round one to rescue what was shaping up to be a poor opener, and he kept his momentum up in round two, birdieing three of his first four holes and then two of his final three after trading two birdies with two bogeys in the interim.
A solid start to the season has the Waterford man ranked 36th in the Road to Mallorca rankings, and he’s just six off the lead with 36 holes to go.
Liam Nolan began the day at four-under and at the head of the Irish sextet, and he reached the turn at level-par after one birdie and one bogey. That dropped shot was the only one of the day and he added two further birdies on the way home to shoot 70 and move to -6 and into a tie for 34th.
Five birdies in an eight-hole stretch either side of the turn breathed fresh life into Max Kennedy’s challenge and he went round in 68 blows to move to -4 and made the cut on the number.
Mark Power narrowly missed out as a bogey on his final hole dropped him the wrong side of the cutline, while Conor Purcell (level-par) and James Sugrue (+1) also missed out.
At the top of the leaderboard, Christofer Blomstrand carded a bogey-free round of 64 to take a two-stroke lead into the weekend.
The Swede, making his fourth start on the 2026 Road to Mallorca, reached 13-under-par on day two in Girona to move two shots clear of fellow countryman Adam Wallin, France’s Clément
Blomstrand started the day with a birdie at the first, swiftly followed by an eagle on the second to set up a flawless second round which included a further five birdies.
“I’m more than pleased to be in this position going into the weekend,” he said. “I was playing okay, I had a couple of short birdies, and I had a couple of bad shots but I’m just very happy at the moment.
“It’s not that easy out there. Some holes were harder than others, but you just have to be on the right spot every time.”
Despite missing the cut at last week’s Italian Challenge Open, the 34-year-old currently sits in eighth position on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, largely thanks to a second-place finish at the Jonsson Workwear Durban Open in February.
“My season has been up and down, similar to these two days really, there’s been some really good shots, and some bad shots as well, so I’m just trying to get my bad shots a little bit better that I hope that they end up a little bit easier to play.
“I will do my best tomorrow and see where we end up come Sunday.”
Wallin, Brown and Sordet sit
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