By Matt Smith
There was a little tog-of-war between England, Scotland and Spain in the Spanish Open as Paul Waring and Stephen Gallacher took a share of the halfway lead at the 2022 Spanish Open, with home hope Jon Rahm in hot pursuit. Waring led the way as he matched the low round of the week — an eight-under 63 with 10 birdies and two bogeys.

Veteran Gallacher soon joined him on 12-under — the four-time DP World Tour winner carding a second straight 65 at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.

Fellow Scot David Drysdale is alongside South African Hennie du Plessis one stroke back, while Rahm has aspirations of matching his hero Seve Ballesteros with a third Open de Espana title and he sits at 10-under alongside Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Dutchman Darius van Driel, Australia’s Min Woo Lee and Frenchman Matthieu Pavon.

“I hit some alright shots,” said Waring. “I actually got the putter quite hot which is not like me at all really, so it was nice to hole a few long ones coming in and keep that momentum I had going during the round, so happy with that finish definitely.”

Gallacher added: “Halfway, you’ve done not a bad job and now you need to do the same again. You’ve got some great players playing. The weather has been perfect, and the course is in unbelievable condition, so you can shoot a low score. We’ll just see what happens. If I can play the same over the weekend, who knows.”

Rahm is ready to go again.

“I played what I could say 11 uncomfortable holes and then I played really good golf on the last seven,” he said. “From 12 on I played wonderful, it was very very enjoyable. It seems to be the part of the golf course that I score on more often so I hope to get a little bit better on the front nine tomorrow.”

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