Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship: Day two digest

Mazzoli and Bjerregaard are tied at the top, Jayden Schaper was celebrating a made cut, and Pablo Larrazabal fought until for the chance to make the weekend until the end.

Here is everything you need to know from Friday at Real Club de Golf El Prat.

Mazzoli "relieved" in his demeanour on way to second round lead

With a focus on a new positive attitude, rookie Stefano Mazzoli proved something to himself in the second round of the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championships.

While he’s yet to crack the top 20 on Tour it was Mazzoli, who secured promotion to the DP World Tour by a top eight finish on the 2025 Road to Mallorca Rankings, that set the early target on Friday with a bogey free 67.

For the Italian, who has missed seven of his last nine cuts, there was a sense of relief that he was able to keep his demeanour calm and in control after struggling with that particular element of the game.

“I am pretty pleased with how I played today, and yesterday, I am really relieved in how I was able to keep calm on the course and control myself,” he said after his round.

“I wasn’t really able to do that the past few weeks and that was how you step up and the most important thing for me.

“I am changing a little bit technically, but to be honest just attitude and thinking a different way, being more positive and all that comes with that. Obviously, I am changing a couple things because when things don’t go your way, you look for something different, but I think the attitude and how I stayed on the course was the biggest change this week. I struggled a little bit at first and for me it is just proving to myself that I am good enough.”

Lucas Bjerregaard taking different approach to 2026 after a few tough seasons

Lucas Bjerregaard was also quick to credit a different mental approach as he matched Mazzoli with his own final hole birdie to cap off a second round 67.

Playing in just his third DP World Tour event of the season the two time DP World Tour winner, who finished 145^th on last year’s Race to Dubai Rankings presented by DP World, has admittedly struggled over the past few years but looked fairly comfortable as he chased down the lead on day two.

Reflecting on his round and his general approach to this year, Bjerregaard said he was trying to take the pressure off himself as he searches for his first win since the 2018 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

"I'm trying to take a little different approach to it this year and take it a little more as it comes. I've been stressing a lot about golf for the last many years, and I'm trying to be a bit... I'm not really sure how to put it, but just take everything a little bit lighter and go, yeah, as we go.

"I mean, I think that's the thing I've figured out about golf in the last five years is that, you know, it was good today, it was good yesterday, but you never know about tomorrow, you never know about next week. So I'm kind of not trying to put too much on these last couple of rounds, but I'm obviously very happy to be where I am and hopefully that can continue for a couple more days."

Making the cut means so much

Jayden Schaper might be a two-time winner on Tour this season and sits third in the Race to Dubai, but he still celebrates making a cut with this much passion.

Having missed his first cut since September last week, Schaper was keen not to make it two in a row.

"Yeah obviously last week was the first missed cut of the season, you don't want to go back to back missed cuts.

"Coming down the stretch I let a few go,I had a few opportunites to get one back and to be able to make a putt like that on the last to make the cut, especially after a pretty tough day out there was pretty cool."

Committment level: 100

Much of Pablo Larrazabal's second round was up and down, but his race to mark his ball on 17 after a difficult Friday at Real Club de Golf El Prat showed his commitment to trying to join the 11 other Spaniards to make the weekend.

Earlier in the week he'd talked about his ambition of getting to ten DP World Tour titles and winning in front of his son, but it unfortauntely was not meant to be this week as he struggled to a second round 75 to miss the cut.

Still, this moment, was a memorable one.