VILLA ALLENDE, CORDOBA, Argentina—There’s something about Nicolo Galletti and the Cordoba Golf Club. In his first two visits to this venue, he tied for fourth in 2018 and finished solo second in 2019. With PGA TOUR Latinoamérica making its return to the city after a three-year absence, Galletti has picked up right where he left off. Following rounds of 67-68 in tough scoring conditions the first two days, Galletti is atop the leaderboard heading into the weekend at the 90th Abierto del Centro Memorial Eduardo “Gato” Romero presented by Telecom.

At 7-under 135, the 27-year-old from Arizona holds a two-shot lead over Australia’s Tim Stewart, who fired a tournament-low 65, and Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti. He shot the second-best score of the day, a 66.

Enjoying the opportunity to play at home this week, the consistent Jorge Fernández Valdés followed an opening 71 with a 68 to climb into a tie for fourth. The 30-year old, who leads the Totalplay Cup and the Zurich Argentina Swing standings, is joined at 4-under by Americans Dalan Refioglu, the first-round leader, and Zander Winston.

“With the conditions that we were going to be facing today, my goal was to shoot around even-par. Obviously, I played a little better than that today, 3-under, which was nice,” said Galletti about the cool day that brought a clear sky and swirling wind that made the 6,878-yard, par-71 Cordoba Golf Club play extremely tough.

His second round was a bit of a rollercoaster, starting birdie-bogey-birdie off No. 1 and then going bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie to close the front nine at 1-under for the day.

“On the front nine, I made a little too many mistakes. I made some bad bogeys and missed a couple of short putts. Just little dumb mistakes that I wish I didn’t make, but I played really well on the back nine,” Galletti added of a round he closed birdieing Nos. 6 through 8 and making a bogey at the last.

The Arizona State University alum seems to have a good plan for the tight layout that demands straight shots off the tee in order to avoid tree trouble. “I like to play this course very aggressively. I like to hit driver on most of the holes,” said Galletti discussing his strategy. “I know I could make a few bogeys here and there if I miss a tee shot, but for me, if I hit my good driver, and I hit it in the fairway it would give me a lot more birdie chances.”

Galletti has done extremely well in Argentina this season, tying for fourth at the season-opening VISA Open de Argentina last December and tying for eighth last week at the Termas de Rio Hondo Invitational. Currently ranked 14th in the Totalplay Cup standings, he has put himself in prime position to make a charge into the top spots in the race to move to the Korn Ferry Tour next season.

Key Information

Officials suspended the second round due to darkness at 7:20 p.m., local time, with only one group left on the course. With Nos. 8 and 9 left to play, those three players—Argentina’s AntonioMaciel, FrancoRomero and EduardoCalsina—will resume play at 8:10 a.m., Saturday.

There are 68 players currently inside the cutline, projected at 3-over, with Antonio Maciel and FrancoRomero among those right on the number.

The top-55 and ties who will remain in contention and are expected to start the third round off the first tee between approximately 9:20 a.m., and 1:20 p.m.

Nicolo Galletti is making his 37th PGA TOUR Latinoamérica career start. He has recorded seven top-10s, with his solo-second finish at the 2019 Abierto del Centro his best performance. He joined the Tour in 2018 and has kept full exempt status by finishing inside the Points List top 60 each of the past three seasons.

Australian veteran Tim Stewart entered the day in a tie for 41st after an opening 72. Having missed the cut in all three of his starts this PGA TOUR Latinoamérica season, he was trying not to think of the cutline. Things worked out pretty well for the 37-year old from Sydney, as he followed a shaky start of bogey-birdie-bogey with seven birdies (holes 5, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, and 18) to fire a tournament-low, 6-under 65. At 5-under for the week, he will enter the weekend in a tie for second.

After the disappointment of missing the cut as the defending champion at the Termas de Rio Hondo Invitational last week, Alejandro Tosti bounced back to enter the weekend in the tie for second. The 25-year old University of Florida alum, who hails from Rosario, Argentina, made his move with a round of 5-under 66 Friday. He got off to a hot start, firing a 5-under 30 on the front nine with birdies on 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8. He shot even-par on the back, making a bogey on 12 and a birdie on 17.

With Argentina’s Jorge Fernández Valdés leading them in a tie for fourth at 4-under, this is how the players inside the Totalplay Cup Points List top 10 stand through 36 holes:

There are 35 Argentine players in this week’s field. The following are the scores and positions of those inside the top 55 and ties heading into Saturday:

Quotable

“It’s a big grind out there. It’s so tough to hit these fairways right now, especially with the wind. Without the wind, it’s already difficult because they are so narrow. With this wind swirling and stuff, you don’t really know which direction it’s coming at for most of the time because it swirls all over the place.” –Nicolo Galletti

“It’s so tough to hit the fairways, which it’s going to be obviously tough to hit the greens if you don’t hit the fairways. I’m very pleased with how I hit my tee shots today, I was in the fairway for the most part, which was huge, and that’s probably the best part of my game.” –Nicolo Galletti

“Obviously, that was not fun, because I was playing really well. I mean, this course, it can just sneak up on you so fast, and I just really just compounded a couple of mistakes. In hindsight, a double bogey wouldn’t be that bad on 5, but it is what it is.” –Dalan Refioglu about making a triple bogey-7 on No. 5 (his 14th hole) and a bogey on No. 6 to lose the outright lead

“Oh yeah. (This is) the hardest 6,800-yard course that you will ever play. It’s probably blowing 20 (mph) right now, this morning it was 40 degrees when we teed it off. (The) fairways are tight, 20 yards wide, so you can’t hide anywhere. You just gotta golf your ball.” –Zander Winston

“This golf course is one where you battle all the time. You need to stay patient and know that at times there are bogeys that are good, so you have to accept them. It also gives you birdie chances, and I think it’s a matter of being patient and accepting the bad holes and trying to play well.” –Jorge Fernández Valdés

Second-Round Weather

Sunny and clear. High of 67. Wind NW at 12-27 mph.