Angel Hidalgo posts tournament record at Andalucia Masters, defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick misses cut
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Published 14/10/2022 at 17:33 GMT
The Andalucia Masters has reached the halfway stage. Valderrama is one of the toughest golf courses in the world and has made some players' lives a misery. Angel Hidalgo will dine out on Friday evening telling everyone who will listen how easy it is as he carded the tournament record in quit brilliant style to catapult himself up the leaderboard. Matt Fitzpatrick failed to make the cut.
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On a day when the tournament record was broken at the Andalucia Masters, Matt Fitzpatrick’s hopes of closing in on Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai rankings were dashed.
Valderrama is one of the toughest courses in world golf, as a host of players can testify to, but Angel Hidalgo made it look easy.
The Spaniard, who arrived in Sotogrande ranked 325 in the world, produced a sizzling round of 63 to climb to nine-under.
He made eight birdies, and had a putt on 18 to level Bernhard Langer’s course record of 62 which has stood since 1994.
Hidalgo has admitted his round came out of the blue, as he was not striking the ball well before getting underway.
“I started the day hitting it so bad on the range,” Hidalgo said. “I only tried to put the ball on the fairways in the first few holes to take some confidence.
"It was amazing. It is the first time I have played with that amount of people following me and I was a little bit scared, but it was a great feeling.”
The course record eluded him, but the Andalucia Masters record is his, and it came on the back of a day in which he needed only 22 putts.
“I made every single putt today and that was the key,” Hidalgo said.
Second Round Leaderboard
- T1. Angel Hidalgo, nine-under
- T1. Min Woo Lee, nine-under
- T1. Adrian Otaegui, nine-under
- 4. Joakim Lagergren, six-under
- T5. Robert MacIntyre, five-under
- T5. Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez, five-under
- T7. Jordan Smith, four-under
- T7. Thriston Lawrence, four-under
- T7. John Catlin, four-under
- T7. Jazz Janewattananond, four-under
Fitzpatrick arrived in Spain in a confident mood, with his aim being to defend the title and eat into McIlroy’s lead.
He struggled in the opening round on Thursday, meaning he had to abandon his patient gameplan for a more aggressive approach in a bid to get back in the hunt.
The US Open champion was unable to get anything going and paid the price for wayward play off the tee.
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That was summed up on the 16th as he found himself in the trees on the right and in an act of desperation played a shot from his knees. Amazingly, he advanced the ball forward but was unable to save par and he ultimately finished outside the cut line at six-over - only his sixth missed cut in his last 94 appearances.
Min Woo Lee was in the same group as Fitzpatrick, and he showed his liking for Valderrama by signing for a 67 to get to nine-under.
It could have been better for the Australian, who was unfortunate to see his brilliant approach on 16 crash into the pin and ricochet back to the front of the green.
The Hojgaard twins are hunting qualification points to fulfil their goal of representing Europe at the Ryder Cup, and both will be around for the weekend.
Both Rasmus and Nicolai carded level-par 71s on Friday, leaving the former at two-under and the latter at two-over.
While Matt Fitzpatrick will not be in action at the weekend, his younger brother Alex will be after he finished at level-par after 36 holes to comfortably make the cut.
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