Sergio Garcia in contention as Christiaan Bezuidenhout is four clear

South Africa’s Christiaan ?Bezuidenhout will take a four-shot lead into the third round of the Andalucia Masters, but tournament host Sergio ?Garcia remains in contention for a fourth straight victory.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout plays out of a bunker at Valderrama. Picture: Luke Walker/Getty

Bezuidenhout took advantage of the calmer morning conditions to add a 68 to his opening 66 to finish on eight under par, with 
Garcia’s 72 leaving him on four under alongside fellow Spaniards Alvaro Quiros and Adri Arnaus and Welshman Bradley Dredge.

“Most of all I just kept it in play nicely, which is the key thing here,” Bezuidenhout said. “I’m driving it pretty well, so I was hitting quite a lot of fairways.

“A course like this you can score from the fairways and if you don’t hit the fairways you’re going to struggle. I prefer the tougher conditions, you’ve just got to face it and I’m just going to do the same over the weekend.”

Garcia first won the Andalucia Masters in 2011 before the event dropped off the European Tour schedule for five years, and his wins in 2017 and 2018 mean the 39-year-old has 13 top-10 finishes in 14 appearances at Valderrama.

The former Masters champion carded three birdies and four bogeys in his 72 and said: “I wouldn’t say it was a bad round, it was very difficult this afternoon.

“The greens were very firm, it got quite windy. I just didn’t really make any putts, but I felt like I played well under the conditions and 72 was the most I could shoot.”

World No 11 Jon Rahm also shot 72 to lie seven shots off the lead and was frustrated with his performance. He said: “It’s just a lot of stupid mistakes, as simple as that. It’s just annoying.”

Meanwhile, the winner of next month’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush will receive £1.5million, an increase of £35,500.The total prize fund has risen from £8.28m to £8.48m.

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said: “The Open is a global sporting event and our priority is to ensure that this is reflected in the prize fund.”

l Former US Open champion Michelle Wie has announced on social media will not play again this season in a bid to recover from a wrist injury.The 29-year-old wrote: “This will give me the best possible chance to finally get healthy.”