18 year-old Matteo Manssero of Italy leads by three shots after with a eight under par 64 at the Open de Andalucía Costa del Sol at Aloha Golf Club, near Marbella.

The Italian leads from a group of five players on five under, 67. which includes Swede Niclas Fasth, South African Open champion Hennie Otto, home favourite Eduardo de la Riva and English pair Lloyd Kennedy and Anthony Wall.

Manassero, currently 63rd in the Official World Golf Ranking, equalled the Aloha course record with his nine-birdie effort.

The Italian needs to climb into the top 50 by the end of next week’s Trophée Hassan II to secure a place at Augusta National.

Fasth, a member of Europe's winning Ryder Cup Team at The Belfry a decade ago, had to fall back on his career earnings to keep his European Tour card last year after finishing 132nd on The Race to Dubai.

The 39 year old, with only one top-three finish in the last four seasons, eagled the long 16th and had six birdies to reach six under, but finished with his third bogey.

Former US Masters Golf champion and lefty Mike Weir from Canada, opened with a 68, while Abu Dhabi winner Robert Rock and tournament host Miguel Angel Jiménez returned 69s playing with Manassero.

Rock, conqueror of Tiger Woods in January, is another just outside the top 50 and winning on Sunday could all but clinch an Augusta debut for him, while Manassero would still have to play well next week.

Live Golf Scores can be found here.

A full list of second round tee times and pairings can be found here.

A full list of golf prizemoney breakdown can be found here.