Canter holds narrow lead at Catalunya Championship

Laurie Canter will take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the 2022 Catalunya Championship after carding a 67 on a happy hunting ground in Girona.

The Englishman was four shots off the lead at the start of play but fired the lowest round of day two to get to seven under par and lead the way from countryman James Morrison and South African Oliver Bekker.
Canter made his first birdie of the day on the fifth and then took a big stride up the leaderboard as he holed out from the rough on the par-four sixth to sit just one behind the overnight leaders. Birdies on the tenth and 12th handed him the lead and he had a two-shot advantage with another gain on the 16th before a bogey on the next saw him set the target at seven under.
"I was in between clubs (on the sixth). Ended up going with a slightly shorter one, just hoped it jumped out of the rough," said Canter.
"It came out well and to be honest it looked like it might be a bit long, but one bounce, two bounces and it disappeared. Obviously delighted for that to go in for eagle, pretty unexpected."
Canter has tasted success at PGA Catalunya Golf and Wellness before, coming through Final Stage Qualifying School here in 2015 and 2016, and is now aiming for a maiden DP World Tour victory over the Stadium Course. 
The 2018 European Ryder Cup Captain Thomas Bjørn, Spaniard Ivan Cantero Gutierrez, Kiwi Ryan Fox, England's Daniel Gavins and Frenchman Adrien Saddier were then at five under. 
German pair Sebastian Heisele and Marcel Schneider, Australian Maverick Antcliff, South African Darren Fichardt, Portuguese Ricardo Gouveia, Finn Mikko Korhonen and Dane Thorbjørn Olesen were a shot further back.