Tomás Melo Gouveia consolidated the leadership at the Optilink Tour Championship on Wednesday, PT Tour’s closing tournament, which distributes 15,000 euros in monetary awards and ends this Thursday at Palmares Ocean Living & Golf Resort, in the Lagos municipality.
The 30 -year -old Portuguese completed the second round in 68 strokes, 4 below the pair in the Alvor and Lakes routes.
On Tuesday, during the inaugural round, he had signed 67 (-5), totaling 135 (-9).
With this performance, it increased the advantage over direct opponents from 1 to 2 strokes, now occupying second place the English Dan Smith (70+67).
Already Ricardo Santos, who on the eve shared the second position with the Scottish Will Porter, descended to 7th place, keeping the 4 strokes below the pair of the first lap, after today they equaled the Par-72 of the field.
Santos (68+72), winner of a DP World Tour tournament for 13 years and champion of the Optilink Tour Championship in 2022 (in Vilamoura), is now tied with North-Sandeh John Ross Galbraith (70+70) and Irish Alex Maguire (72+68).
However, two other Portuguese positioned themselves in the struggle for the title. Tomás Bessa rose to 3rd place, tied with English Jack Broun, both with 138 (-6). Bessa, who won the Optilink Tour Championship in 2023 (also in Vilamoura), today recorded an excellent return of 68 (-4), joining it to the 70 (-2) of the debut.
Daniel da Costa Rodrigues ascended the 5th place, tied with Scottish Will Porter (68+71), with 139 (-5). ‘Dani’ maintained the consistency, with turns of 70 (-2) and 69 (-3).
Both Daniel da Costa Rodrigues and Tomás Melo Gouveia have already won a title at the PT Tour, now trying to reach the second victory of the season.
After two of the three laps of the race, there are 18 players below the pair, a total of 73 participants.
“Today I didn’t have my best game, but it was a good lap. Putt stalled me, say so. It was good to see that, even though I didn’t have my game at 100 percent, I was able to make Birdies and a good result, ”said Tomás Melo Gouveia, winner, in January, of the 2nd Palmares Open (-22 in the Lagos-Praia paths).
The Portuguese player, who competes at the HotelPlanner Tour (former Challenge Tour), returned to 1 Eagle (today in hole 15, yesterday at 17) and 4 Birdies, suffering only 2 bogeys.
“The goal is to be up there, have the opportunity to, on the last lap, have a chance to win. I think I got it and if you play well tomorrow I hope to get the victory, ”added the Algarve, who resides in Lisbon and intends to become in the Portuguese fourth to win the Optilink Tour Championship in six editions, following the footsteps of Ricardo Santos (2022), Tomás Bessa (2023) and Pedro Figueiredo (2024).
The third and last lap is played on Thursday, from 8 am, with the novelty of two holes at the same time, allowing the awards ceremony to take place earlier, around 3:30 pm.
The last group to come out of hole 10 will be at 9:50 am, while the leaders group, which starts from hole 1, has an exit to 10:01 am and consists of Tomás Melo Gouveia, Dan Smith and Jack Broun.
PT Tour is a Portuguese international circuit, intended for high -performance professionals and amateurs, sanctioned by the Portuguese Golf Federation () and the PGA of Portugal.
The main classifications of the tournament and the results of the Portuguese players, after the completion of the second of three laps, were as follows:
1st Tomás Melo Gouveia (Portugal), 135 (67+68), -9.
2nd Dan Smith (England), 137 (70+67), -7.
3rd Jack Broun (England), 138 (69+69), -6.
3rd (tied) Tomás Bessa (Portugal), 138 (70+68), -6.
5th (tied) Daniel da Costa Rodrigues (Portugal), 139 (70+69), -5.
5th (tied) Will Porter (Scotland), 139 (68+71), -5.
7th (tied) Ricardo Santos (Portugal), 140 (68+72), -4.
16th (tied) Hugo Camelo (Portugal), 143 (72+71), -1.
28th (tied) Vasco Alves (Portugal), 147 (72 +75), +3.
28th (tied) Hugo Santos (Portugal), 147 (74 +73), +3.
51º (tied), Vasco Silva (Portugal), 154 (76 +78), +10.
67th Duarte Reis Ferreira (Portugal/Angola), 172 (93 +79), +28.
71º João Costa (Portugal), 181 (90 +91), +37.
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