Shane Lowry ended the day as he’d started at the Open de España, but despite losing ground to the leaders, the Offaly man has a Saturday tee time though Tom McKibbin won’t be joining him.
After an opening one-under round of 70, Lowry was just four off the lead, but after covering his first nine holes of round two in level-par, back-to-back bogeys on 10 and 11 left him teetering on the cutline which looked set to fall at +1.
A superb approach to 13 set up a short birdie putt that he made no mistake on, then he took care of the par-5 14th to give himself additional breathing space and when he rolled in a 20-footer on 16 for a third birdie in the space of four holes, he’d drawn within seven of the lead.
But a wayward drive on 18 proved costly and a closing bogey left him back at one-under and sharing 33rd place.
McKibbin began the day at one-over and a run of three consecutive bogeys on the back nine having covered the first 10 in level-par left him too much work to do and he ended the day at +3, two shots outside the cut mark.
Of the trio sharing the lead after round one, Grant Forrest was best able to carry his form into round two and he’ll take a one-shot lead into the weekend at a tournament where he’s come close on several occasions.
The Scot has twice finished tied third in Spain’s national open, in 2021 and 2024, and has never missed the cut across his six previous appearances.
He backed up his opening 66 with a 67 on Friday to reach nine-under, with countryman Connor Syme and Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach as his nearest challengers.
Eugenio Chacarra, who is playing on home soil with a fractured toe, and Joe Dean are both at seven under, with Danish duo Jacob Skov Olesen and Jeff Winther a shot further back, alongside French pair Martin Couvra and Victor Perez and New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier.
Patrick Reed, who has led the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World since February, missed the cut and Chacarra will leapfrog both Rory McIlroy and the American with a victory on Sunday.
Forrest arrived in the Spanish capital on the back of four consecutive missed cuts and a retirement across his five appearances so far on the Back 9, but he said after his first round that he had seen signs a good performance was coming.
He bogeyed his opening hole of the day, but birdies at the seventh and eighth after a pair of fine approaches helped him to turn in 35.
Further birdies at the tenth and 12th followed, the latter courtesy of a 32-foot putt, before he bounced back from bogeying the 13th for a second consecutive day at the next and finished with an up-and-down birdie at the last.
“It was a good, really good score in the end,” he said.
“You know, I didn’t have my best stuff on our first five or six holes, but made a couple of really nice par saves to keep the momentum going, and then, yeah, I just managed to make quite a few birdies.
“Started driving it well the last 12 holes and yeah, delighted with four under. I probably didn’t play quite as well as yesterday.”
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