The peculiar pressures of the European Tour’s Qualifying School came to bear at San Roque, in Spain, yesterday during the second of six rounds. While the number of players who had a round of 70 or better was not much different on the second day from the first (29 on Thursday, 24 yesterday), there were notable changes in fortune.

Robert Coles, the leader after the first round, had an appalling day over the Old Course, a triple-bogey six at the 16th contributing to a round of 79, 13 strokes worse than his first attempt. Christian Nilsson and Fredrik Orest, the Swedes, shared second place after their first rounds of 68 but dropped to 109th after each had an 80.

Peter Senior went in the other direction. The 48-year-old Australian, the oldest man in the field, had a 67, six strokes better than on Thursday, to move into fifth place on four under par, three strokes behind Pablo Larrazábal, of Spain, who had six birdies in a 66.

“For me it is not a door-die sort of thing, so I am probably a bit more relaxed than most of the other guys as I can stick my hat on and go back to work next week,” Senior, who owns a pawnbroking business with his brother that was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange, said.

With the top 30 on Tuesday earning their card for next year, it is promising for British golf that there are 12 Englishmen, a Welshman and three Scots in the top 30 after two rounds. Andrew Coltart, the former Ryder Cup player, is not one of them. He had a 77 to go with his first round of 72 and is in danger of missing tomorrow’s cut.