Gonzalez title bid suffers blow

Ricardo Gonzalez’s bid to become the first back-to-back tournament winner for three years suffered a late blow in the Spanish Open in Fuerteventura.

Gonzalez won the Seville Open on Sunday, carding birdies on three of the last five holes for a two-shot victory over Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher and England’s Jonathan Lomas.

It was his third European Tour title and second win on Spanish soil following his Madrid Open victory in 2003, and he arrived in the Canary Islands strongly favoured to make it two in a row for the first time since Vijay Singh won the Malaysian Open and Singapore Masters in the space of seven days in 2001.

The Argentinian recorded an opening three under 67 and was still within three shots of the lead with two holes to play today after one birdie and 15 pars.

But he then double-bogeyed the eighth, his penultimate hole, after finding a bare lie in the greenside bunker and thinning his third shot across the green.

The 34-year-old, one of the longest hitters on the tour, then took out his obvious frustration on the next by hammering his drive to within 10 yards of the green on the 367-yard par four to set up a closing birdie.

That gave him a second round 70 and halfway total of three under par, four shots behind new leader Christian Cevaer.

Cevaer, who was world junior champion at the age of 17 and finished second in the British Masters last year, picked up three birdies in his first seven holes to move into the lead but then bogeyed the eighth and 10th.

However, further birdies at the 11th and 13th gave him a second round 67 and took him back in front on seven under par, one ahead of first round leader David Park who was among the later starters.

England’s David Lynn (68) was a shot further back in third alongside Sweden’s Henrik Nystrom who had carded a flawless 65 to lie five under.

Pre-tournament favourite Jose Maria Olazabal had just started his second round on one over par, one shot inside the current predicted cut mark, although that was likely to change if the usual strong winds blew this afternoon.