Christiaan Bezuidenhout leads after day two of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters

Christiaan Bezuidenhout mastered the tougher conditions on day two to take a commanding four shot lead into the weekend at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.

The fearsome Real Club Valderrama had proved scoreable in round one as Bezuidenhout registered a 66 but firmer greens and higher winds made it a different proposition on Friday.

The South African carded a 68 in the morning to get to eight under and with conditions getting even tougher in the afternoon, tournament host Sergio Garcia, fellow home favourites Adri Arnaus and Alvaro Quiros, and Welshman Bradley Dredge emerged as the closest challengers.

Bezuidenhout has two runner up finishes on the European Tour but is still searching for that first win after claiming third place at last week's BMW International Open.

"First of all I just kept it in play really nicely," he said. "That’s the key thing here, hitting fairways. I was driving it really well. On a course like this you can score well if you hit the fairways but if you don’t you can really struggle."

Bezuidenhout birdied the tenth and soon found himself in a five way tie for the lead but he burst out of that with another gain on the 17th and a stunning approach to the first.

He made excellent up-and-downs to save par on the fifth and sixth but could not make it a hat-trick as he dropped a shot on the seventh.

The 25-year-old left himself a flick with a sand wedge into the eighth to bounce straight back and parred the ninth to set the target.

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