Swede dreams could come true
England’s Jonathan Lomas, with only one European Tour victory in more than 350 starts, continued to battle for the lead in the Mallorca Classic – along with a player for whom it meant far more.
Lomas, one ahead after his five-under-par opening round of 65, added another birdie at Pula’s 467-yard eighth, but bogeys at the next two holes returned the 37-year-old to four under par.
And those dropped shots meant a four-way tie at the top. Mark Foster and Irishman Gary Murphy, both round in 66 yesterday, had yet to resume, while Swede Mattias Eliasson was finally making his presence felt this season.
With nothing better than a 19th-place finish all year, Eliasson has to finish in the top four at worst this weekend to keep his place on the European Tour.
With six birdies in his first 15 holes he could have raced clear, but there were also two bogeys and a double-bogey six at the 313-yard 11th – the shortest par four on the course.
Essex’s Simon Khan took centre stage at the start of the day when he birdied three of the first four holes to take over the lead from Lomas.
But Khan, out in front after the second and third rounds last year before eventually finishing runner-up to Sergio Garcia, double-bogeyed the fifth and then, after picking up another shot two holes later, he had another double bogey on the 176-yard 13th.
That left him one behind, while Garcia was three back at one-under.
Lomas was playing with Swede Jarmo Sandelin, who was another playing fighting for his tour future, in his case just six years after he played for Europe in the Ryder Cup.
Sandelin is 139th on the order of merit, just ahead of Eliasson, and also needed to be in the first four to avoid a return to the qualifying school.
But with eight holes of his second round to go he was down on one over par and only just inside the expected halfway cut mark.
Going best of all in the second round was Yorkshire’s Simon Dyson.
Down in 113th place after an opening 77 he raced to the turn in 30 and when he birdied the long 10th as well he was up to one over par.
With preferred lies in operation on the wet fairways, however, there was no course record to chase.
Midlander John Bickerton, winner of his first tour title in Tenerife two weeks ago, reached five-under, but then came three successive bogeys at the start of the front nine.
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