Kent’s Benn Barham started the European Tour qualifying school in style with two decent opening rounds in Catalunya.

The 35 year old from Tenterden is trying to earn his place on the European Tour by making his way through the qualifying tournament in Spain.

In a field of 156 competitors, Barham started day two tied in fourth place, five shots behind leaded Sam Hutsby who hit a staggering ten under par sixty.

Barham went on to hit a two under par 70 in his second round to take his score to seven under for the opening thirty six holes, six shots behing Hutsby.

Having played so well in his opening eighteen holes, Barham was pleased with his own performance:

“I played well today. I kept the ball in the fairway and managed to hole a few putts.”

“I’ve been playing quite nicely for the past few weeks without holing anything, so it made a nice change today and hopefully that can continue for the rest of the week.”

“The course is playing quite long because it’s fairly soft with all the rain they’ve had recently, but the greens were rolling beautifully.”

“Everyone says the Tour Course is the easier of the two, but I think if you’re playing well it doesn’t matter where you play.”

Meanwhile, Matt Ford from Maidstone will start his third round on three over par after hitting a 67 on the Tour course and 78 on the Stadium Course with Francis McGuirk from Deal starting day three from the same position after hitting 69 on day two.