Golf

Thorbjorn Olesen back at the top as he leads in Gran Canaria

Jonathan Caldwell is best of the Irish thanks to a Friday 65 at Meloneras Golf

Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark waits on the seventh hole during the second round of the Gran Canaria Open at Meloneras Golf Club. Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images

Fri Apr 23 2021 - 20:20

A brilliant 61 saw former Ryder Cup player Thorbjorn Olesen claim the halfway lead after day two of the inaugural Gran Canaria Lopesan Open as Jonathan Caldwell fired a 65 to move his way up the leaderboard.

Caldwell dropped just one shot on Friday – at his first hole of the day, the 10th – before reeling off four birdies in the next six to get to three under for the day at the turn. Two more birdies at the first and fourth moved the 36-year-old to six under for the day and would see him finish in a tie for 33rd at seven under par with two rounds to go.

One shot further back is Niall Kearney who signed for a 68 on Friday while Cormac Shrvin – at three under – and Paul Dunne – one under – both missed the halfway cut.

Playing his first event of 2021 due to a combination of testing positive for Covid-19, a wrist injury and becoming a father for the first time, leader Olesen carded an eagle and seven birdies at Meloneras Golf to finish 14 under par.

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Welshman Rhys Enoch added a superb 62 to his opening 65 late in the day to join Holland’s Wil Besseling on 13 under, with Germany’s Max Kieffer, France’s Robin Roussel and Austria’s Matthias Schwab all on 12 under.

“I feel great. I was definitely not expecting this,” Olesen said.

“It was an amazing experience to have a son three or four weeks ago and I didn’t have much practice coming in here, only last week, so the expectations were pretty low, but it was great fun to be out there shooting such a good number.

“My putting was really good both days, that always helps obviously, but beside that I hit a lot of fairways over the two days. I wasn’t really expecting anything and was just trying on every shot, not really thinking about it too much and I think that helped me a lot.”

Having started from the 10th hole, Olesen covered the back nine in 31 before an eagle on the fourth and birdie on the fifth gave him an outside chance of carding the second 59 in European Tour history.

“I didn’t even know what the par was on this course to be honest,” added Olesen, who birdied the eighth but was unable to produce an eagle on the par-four ninth to break the 60 barrier.

Olesen was suspended by the European Tour after he was arrested and charged with sexual assault, being drunk on a plane and assault by beating after an alleged incident on a flight from Nashville to London on July 29, 2019.

The 31-year-old pleaded not guilty to all charges at a court hearing in December that year, but delays in legal proceedings due to the coronavirus saw his suspension lifted at the start of July 2020.

“While my team and I initially agreed that I would not participate in Tour events while the legal proceedings were outstanding, I am naturally grateful to the European Tour for allowing me to continue my career following the lengthy adjournment of my trial,” Olesen said at the time his suspension was lifted.

“Obviously, the case itself is still ongoing so I will continue to make no comment about it.“

Olesen’s trial was originally listed for May 11, 2020, but the pandemic and subsequent backlog in the legal process means he will not appear in court again until December 6th, 2021 at the earliest.

Olesen was not the only player to shoot 61 as the resort course continued to give up plenty of birdies, England’s Sam Horsfield and Scotland’s Connor Syme both returning the same score to finish 10 under and eight under respectively.

Second round scores at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open (British unless stated, Par 70):

126 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den) 65 61,

127 Rhys Enoch 65 62, Wil Besseling (Ned) 64 63,

128 Matthias Schwab (Aut) 65 63, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 63 65, Robin Roussel (Fra) 63 65,

129 Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 65 64, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 66 63,

130 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 63 67, Matt Ford 64 66, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 66 64, Richard Bland 64 66, Romain Langasque (Fra) 67 63, Sam Horsfield 69 61, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 68 62,

131 Andrew Johnston 68 63, Ben Evans 64 67, Darius van Driel (Ned) 66 65, Jack Senior 66 65, Joost Luiten (Ned) 63 68, Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den) 67 64, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 66 65

132 Alejandro Del Rey (Spa) 64 68, Benjamin Poke (Den) 66 66, Connor Syme 71 61, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 65 67, Jamie Donaldson 65 67, Justin Harding (Rsa) 65 67, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 69 63, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 65 67, Scott Jamieson 64 68, Si-Hwan Kim (Kor) 67 65

133 Aaron Cockerill (Can) 71 62, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe) 67 66, Berry Henson (USA) 70 63, Clement Sordet (Fra) 65 68, Jeff Winther (Den) 67 66, Jonathan Caldwell 68 65 (NIrl), Jordan Smith 68 65, Lars van Meijel (Ned) 66 67, Marcus Armitage 69 64, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 65 68, Paul Waring 68 65, Richie Ramsay 68 65

134 Antoine Rozner (Fra) 66 68, Calum Hill 68 66, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 66 68, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 70 64, Ivan Cantero (Spa) 67 67, John Catlin (USA) 67 67, Justin Walters (Rsa) 69 65, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 68 66, Niall Kearney (Irl) 66 68, Oliver Wilson 65 69, Richard Mansell 68 66, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 63

135 Adria Arnaus (Spa) 69 66, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 67 68, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 70 65, Andy Sullivan 70 65, Ashley Chesters 70 65, Ashun Wu (Chn) 67 68, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 68 67, Garrick Porteous 68 67, Gregory Havret (Fra) 65 70, James Morrison 69 66, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 68 67, Louis de Jager (Rsa) 69 66, Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 71 64, Max Schmitt (Ger) 66 69, Oliver Farr 68 67, Pep Angles (Spa) 71 64, Sean Crocker (USA) 67 68, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 69 66

The following players missed the cut:

136 Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 70 66, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 69 67, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 70 66, David Coupland 70 66, Eddie Pepperell 65 71, Euan Walker 71 65, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 68 68, Jake McLeod (Aus) 66 70, Janne Kaske (Fin) 69 67, Joel Stalter (Fra) 68 68, Julian Suri (USA) 64 72, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 68 68, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 71 65, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 69 67, Oliver Fisher 69 67, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 66 70, Pedro Oriol (Spa) 71 65, Richard McEvoy 69 67, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 73 63, Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 68 68, Ross Fisher 69 67, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe) 71 65, Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha) 67 69, Toby Tree 68 68, Tom Gandy 67 69

137 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 67 70, Austin Bautista (Aus) 69 68, Borja Virto (Spa) 66 71, Cormac Sharvin (NIrl) 67 70, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 69 68, Johannes Veerman (USA) 70 67, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 69 68, Lee Slattery 67 70, Liam Johnston 70 67, Ricardo Santos (Por) 69 68, Steven Brown 71 66

138 Adrien Saddier (Fra) 69 69, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 66 72, Dale Whitnell 69 69, David Drysdale 68 70, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 69 69, Grant Forrest 68 70, Matthew Jordan 67 71, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 68 70, Ondrej Lieser (Cze) 67 71, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 72 66, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 70, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 70 68, Steven Tiley 70 68, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 67 71, Thomas Sloman 71 67, Tyler Koivisto (USA) 68 70

139 Alexander Levy (Fra) 70 69, Carl Suneson (Spa) 71 68, David Law 71 68, Paul Dunne (Irl) 68 71, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 69 70, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 71 68

140 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 71 69, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 67 73, (a) Oscar Sanchez (Spa) 69 71, Sebastian Garcia (Spa) 69 71

141 Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 72 69, Eduard Rousaud (Spa) 72 69, Eduardo de la Riva (Spa) 71 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 68 73, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 73 68, Samuel Del Val (Spa) 70 71

142 Chris Wood 70 72, David Howell 71 71, Ross McGowan 73 69, Shiv Chawrasia (Ind) 74 68,

143 Ignacio Elvira (Spa) 76 67, Matthew Southgate 71 72

144 Peter Hanson (Swe) 74 70

146 Andrea Pavan (Ita) 78 68

156 Inaki Urriza (Spa) 83 73