Spence capitalises on Kennedy stumble

A late stumble from long-time leader Brad Kennedy gave England’s Jamie Spence the lead midway through the delayed second round of the Madeira Island Open.

Kennedy, who carded a first round 62, bogeyed the last two holes of his second round this morning to record a level par 72 and remain 10 under par.

That meant Spence took over at the top of the leaderboard on 11 under after adding a 67 to his opening 66, despite also dropping a shot at the 18th.

The leading pair were among 126 of the 144-strong field forced to return to Santo da Serra today following lengthy delays due to heavy rain and low cloud on Thursday and Friday.

Half of the field had not even started their second rounds before today, and the third round will not start until at least 3pm this afternoon.

However, the weather forecast is for similar conditions to the first two days and Spence admitted: “I’d be surprised if we can play four rounds but you just have to take what you can get.

“I’d be surprised if we start the third round today as the weather is supposed to be the same as the last two days, but you can never really tell and we just play when we are told.

“Now I’ll go back to the hotel and have a kip.”