24 July 2021: Nacho Elvira will take a two-stroke lead into the weekend of the Cazoo Open after carding a four under par second round of 67 at The Celtic Manor Resort. Shubhankar Sharma shot an even 71, enough to reach the weekend at T21. He is one-under through 36 holes. Ajeetesh Sandhu and Gaganjeet Bhullar missed the cut.
Sharing the overnight lead with Vincent Norrman, the Spaniard carded six birdies to move to 11 under par on The Twenty Ten Course, host venue of the Ryder Cup 11 years ago.
Norrman recovered from a front nine of 39, three over par, with five birdies after the turn, including three in a row from the 14th, to card a two under par round of 69 for a nine under par total.
Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura carded the lowest round of the tournament thus far, an eight under par 63, to climb 40 places on the leaderboard up to third. The 28-year-old carded seven birdies and an eagle to record his lowest score on the European Tour in 98 starts.
Four-time European Tour winner Matt Wallace sits in fourth place on seven under par, one stroke ahead of American Chase Hanna, Finland’s Mikko Korhonen and Jacques Kruyswijk of South Africa.
Nacho Elvira: “It wasn’t a rainbow, but it was pretty good. More calm than yesterday, I’d said. I didn’t have as many birdies, but I didn’t have as many bad numbers. Overall, it was a great round – especially with the wind picking up a little bit. So I’m very happy with four under.
“It’s definitely playing a lot different than last year. The fairways are firm and the greens are firming up. You have to adjust to how much the ball is releasing on the greens, that’s the most important thing. There were some tough pins today you had to stay away from. It worked out quite well.
“Anywhere close (to the leading groups) is always good. To be 100 per cent honest, I don’t really care where I end up. I’m happy with how I’m trying to turn my game around, especially my mind around. So we’ll see what that brings.”
Vincent Norrman: “It was tough on the front nine, a lot of wind. I hit a couple of really good shots, actually, but didn’t really do what I wanted to do. I had some wrong numbers. I made a bogey on seven and then doubled eight, which was pretty bad.
“It was hard. I know I had two shots that I hit perfectly, but they were 15 long, then the guys I played with, it spun up a bit and then came up 20 short. There was a lot of wind.
“I’m very happy with how I turned it around. I birdied 11 – almost made eagle – and had a lot of chances coming in. On the last six or seven holes I had a lot of good opportunities and I took advantage of them.
“If I can step up one more spot, I’ll be happy. I’ve never been in this situation before, so I don’t really know what to say, to be honest. If I play my game, I feel like I can finish it off but there’s a lot of golf to be played. We’re only halfway.”
