Benn Barham continued to produce the kind of golf that made a recent European Challenge Tour champion to move into the lead at the Texbond Open. The Englishman posted his second consecutive 67 of the tournament to establish a one stroke advantage over Northern Irishman Michael Hoey, Finland’s Toni Karjalainen and Fredrik Widmark of Sweden.
Barham secured the second Challenge Tour victory of his career in at the Open Mahou de Madrid a fortnight ago, and he continued that excellent form at Garda Golf by carding his second round five under 67 in as many days to move to ten under par 134.
The Englishman is playing some excellent golf at the moment, and he continued that trend by putting together an impressive five birdies and 13 pars to move into first place at the halfway stage.
“I’m just playing really steady at the moment and not making too many mistakes,” Barham confirmed. “I have only dropped one shot in the two rounds that I have played here so far and that is always going to help you put good scores together.
“Over the last few weeks my short game has been excellent as well and my confidence has obviously grown since winning in Madrid. That was really good for my game because I led from start to finish and I think when you win wire to wire like that it eases the pressure of being in good positions the next time you happen to be in one.
“The golf course that we are playing this week is excellent as well and I think that the more courses like Garda that we can play out on the Challenge Tour then the better it will be for everyone’s development. You want to play tough courses because it can only improve you as a player.”
Hoey supplemented his opening 68 with a five under 67 that included a double bogey 6 at the first hole (his ninth of the day). The Northern Irishman had played the back nine in two under before picking up his six at the first, but he responded brilliantly with an eagle three at the par five third and then a birdie at the fourth before adding another two birdies at the seventh and ninth to finish strongly and join Karjalainen and Widmark in a tie for second place.
Like Barham, Karjalainen is also a Challenge Tour champion this season having won the Thomas Björn Open presented by Multidata in June. The Finn rediscovered the level of performance that took him to victory in Denmark with a sparkling 66 that included six birdies and no dropped shots during the second round.
Widmark has also tasted success on the 2005 Schedule having won the Riu Tikida Hotels Moroccan Classic, but was the only one of the leaders who was unhappy with his second round performance.
The 29 year old was four under for the day and looking to end the round in the outright lead until a bogey-bogey finish took the shine off of his second round and saw him drop back to second place.
Spain’s Alfredo Garcia is a shot behind the second placed trio on eight under par, with the Italian duo of Andrea Maestroni and Andrea Zani alongside Scotsman Marc Warren on seven under. Seventy one players made the halfway cut of one under par.
