Neither Jon Rahm nor Rafa Cabrera Bello. The two Spaniards who are the best in Valderrama right now are Sebas García and Alejandro Cañizares. Two from Madrid, 32 and 38 years old, respectively, who yesterday signed laps of -1 and +3 to stay the first and +1 the second. Seven and eight shots behind the Englishman Canter, who added a -4 of many carats to his fantastic -6 on Friday and set the bar at -7, with a margin of three over his compatriot Fitzpatrick, second and the player with the best ranking (he is 28th) of those remaining in the Andalucía Masters.
Sebas, who is in his second season with the full European Tour card, has accumulated five top-10s on the circuit so far and brushed off his first win earlier this year in Kenya. “I am very happy with my work. I have been hitting him very well for three days”, celebrated after his third “solid” round (70 strokes with two birdies and one bogey) of the tournament this late talent trained at El Robledal Golf, which has already broken into in his thirties and still has his residence in the Ensanche de Vallecas.
Cañizares, on the other hand, is already a classic, with 15 years as a professional and two victories (Russian Open in 2006 and Hassan II in 2014). Son of José María Cañizares, who played four Ryders and won two, is a partner of Valderrama. “Why not? There are always options. If I play well, I put a lot of putts and there are bogeys ahead I can be up. Valderrama is a perfect course for there to be a turnaround,” said ‘Cañi’ (74 shots with three birdies and six bogeys), last national containment levee against the English assault.
Cabrera Bello, the best Spaniard on the first day, signed +2 to +2 and dropped to 21st place. Nine from the head (he is 21º), and coming from a victory in Madrid, the goal for Sunday is to try to “finish up”. “The feelings have not changed. I came from winning and I am playing well. Valderrama is beating me on the greens, not so much from tee to green. There have been six or seven tricks that weigh. But that can change quickly. Playing like that, if I have the day on the greens I can do a fairly low lap, “he launched optimistically. Larrazábal did +1 to +2; Elvira, -1 for +3; Campillo, +2 to +4; Fernández-Castaño, +1 for +4; Quiros, even for +4; Tarrio, even for +5; and Otaegui, +6 to +9.
The name of the day was that of the American David Lipsky, who made -7, equaling the tournament record that Sergio García had with his 64 strokes in the second round of 2018. He is already third to four hits from Canter. The funny anecdote was put by the South African Nienaber, the Danish Nicolaj Hojgaard, the Irish Crocker and the Australian Lee, who broke the record for the fastest hole among four players: they completed par 5 of the fourth in 24.75 seconds.
Check here the complete classifications of the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters