Angel Hidalgo surged to a commanding four-shot lead after carding a 67 in the second round of the 2024 Acciona Open de España presented by Madrid.
Related: Angel Hidalgo leads celebrated field in Spain
The Spanish hopeful built on his opening 65 with another impressive performance, reaching ten under par, and distancing himself from the chasing pack led by England’s Joe Dean, who finished at six under.
Jon Rahm, a three-time champion of his national open, was in a group of five players a further shot back including compatriot Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Frenchman Julien Guerrier, England’s Sam Bairstow and United States Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed on five under.
Hidalgo started from the tenth with consecutive birdies and though he gave one back at the 12th – where a trademark booming drive found the right rough – he was back on track with a gain at the 14th. Further birdies at the second and eighth brought him home in 34 and under par by double figures for the tournament.
Two more Spaniards, Adri Arnaus and David Puig, were at four under alongside England’s Tommy Fleetwood and American Jimmy Walker.
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Spanish amateur Luis Masaveu made the cut at two under while the round of the day belonged to Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino, with ten birdies – including six in a row from the 14th to the second holes, and another run of three before a closing bogey at the ninth.
Jens Fahrbring provided another of the highlights of the day, a hole in one at the 208-yard 11th hole helping the Swede to one under par for his round and the tournament.
Player quotes
Angel Hidalgo: Well, completely different. I would say, I already said to my caddie, I feel every shot today. Yesterday, I was completely blind and I was just hitting the ball and I don’t know why it was directly to the pin.
But today I played really good. Today I played really good. Two bad drivers to finish the round on 4 and 7, two pretty easiest, probably, the birdie chances from the back nine for me today. But yeah, really happy with the way I play, and yeah, it’s good.
I need to play good from the tee. Especially this week, the rough is not the same on every part, so you can have a really luck or bad luck, so you are in position with the preferred lies, is a big advantage. Yeah, being in position is important this week.
Joe Dean: Yeah, it’s been great. Par fives have been very good to me. So yeah, felt a little scrappy in places. But yeah, overall, a great day. Just some delicate hands the last two days. I think I rubbed some Spanish hands off on me. Great chip-in.
It seems like a typical old-style Spanish course. It’s great. A bit of everything. Some tricky tee shot. Some straightforward tee shots. Yeah, it’s got a bit of everything. The greens, I think they slowed them up slightly for the wind yesterday, and yeah, when the greens here are quick, it’s tricky.
Jon Rahm: It’s a little frustrating after such good work yesterday in the heavy winds to not take advantage of the easier conditions today, especially the first — my first 11 holes, barely any wind. Did a little bit of a good job early, but I just couldn’t get the round going.
Overall, everything just felt one or two levels below what I would have liked to feel. Wasn’t really quite comfortable all day on the course. But there’s a couple moments where I still had some good swings, and making that eagle putt was something that kind of renewed the energy in me for the rest of the round. But just a few too many mistakes, I would say, in general, but a lot of the short irons, like missing the green on 12, missing the green on 18, five, hitting it 40 feet long, missing the green on seven with a nine-iron being a par five and missing the green on eight as well. There’s too many short irons, I’m not saying I need to hit it close but to have a look at birdie makes a big difference.
Well, I feel like yesterday on TV, you couldn’t appreciate how windy it was just because some of the areas, maybe on camera, it doesn’t look like it. Whoever teed off late/early, had the easier side, I would say. Because yesterday morning it was windy. It was a tricky golf course and almost yesterday towards the end, the last 45 minutes or so, the wind died down a little bit to make it a little bit easier. And so if you count that and then this morning having no wind at all for the first three hours, it was definitely easier.
So I would say this afternoon, it’s going to get windy again. It’s a tough golf course. It’s not an easy one. These are narrow fairways, small landing areas, small greens, and good shots that if you miss it by a small margin, it’s a bit of a luck of the draw if you get in the rough. You’re not going to see many low scores out there. It might still happen. We saw Angel do it yesterday but you won’t see many.
Tommy Fleetwood: Started off really well and just turned out to be a bit frustrating. For the most part — there was a couple iffy shots. Bad break on nine, if you like. But you know, it’s not the worst position to be in but yeah, just after such a hot start, felt like I was playing well. A bit frustrating to not shoot a better score.
But that’s golf. So got to deal with it and move on.
I felt like the course was that bit firmer and faster, if you like, today. That first bounce downwind was pretty big. So you had to sort of be pretty precise, and if you — I drove it well for the most part but if you are off the fairways, that’s when it becomes really, really tricky. I think you just look at the scores, and that gives you a fair reflection of how tough it’s been to shoot a really low one.
Shane (Lowry) had a great round today. He did everything right and so then obviously when you’re playing with someone like that, you feel like you should be doing better when you’re playing well. But clearly by the scoring, it’s not that easy. It’s a really good golf course. You have a great chance of shooting low, but also you can get punished, as well. I think that’s how tournament golf should be.
