Spanish golfer Nacho Elvira edges ahead in Wales Open

Nacho Elvira will take a two-stroke lead into the weekend of the Wales Open after carding a four-under par second round of 67 at Celtic Manor.

Sharing the overnight lead with Vincent Norrman, the Spaniard carded six birdies to move to 11-under par on The Twenty Ten Course, host venue of the Ryder Cup 11 years ago.

Norrman recovered from a front nine of 39, three over par, with five birdies after the turn, including three in a row from the 14th, to card a two-under par round of 69 for a nine-under par total.

Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura carded the lowest round of the tournament thus far, a 63, to climb 40 places on the leaderboard up to third. The 28-year-old carded seven birdies and an eagle to record his lowest score on the European Tour in 98 starts.

Four-time European Tour winner Matt Wallace sits in fourth place on seven-under, one stroke ahead of American Chase Hanna, Finland’s Mikko Korhonen and Jacques Kruyswijk of South Africa.

“It wasn’t a rainbow, but it was pretty good,” said Elvira, joking to his first-round card that had ‘every colour on it’. “It was calmer than yesterday, I didn’t have as many birdies, but I didn’t have as many bad numbers. Overall, it was a great round — especially with the wind picking up a little bit. So I’m very happy with four-under.”