Adri Arnaus (-5) takes a breath. The Catalan has kicked off the Italian Open presented by Emilia Romagna with a sensational card of five strokes under par that puts him, provisionally, in the fifth place of the tournament.
His round of 66 strokes today at Adriatic Golf Club Cervia is his lowest round in almost four months, and matches his best record of the season achieved on March 2 in the third round of the SDC Championship.
How much the Moia native needed a round like today’s. The Catalan is currently in 140th place in the Race to Dubai and needs to climb positions that allow him, first to keep the card and, why not try to sneak into the end of season playoffs.
Adri is looking for a consistency that he can’t quite find. Just five cuts passed this season are insufficient baggage for a player called to great things. A day of golf like today is oxygen in the vein, a real breath of fresh air. Tomorrow Arnaus will have an interesting revalidation to prove that he is gradually finding his way back.
If the start of Adri Arnaus has been good, that of Ángel Ayora has not been left behind. His potential is well known to all those who have been lucky enough to closely follow this 19-year-old Andalusian, but today at Adriatic Golf Club Cervia he has shown the entire DP World Tour circuit how he does it. At the start of the Italian Open he has delivered a card of 67 strokes to place himself in a provisional sixth place.
He is not intimidated by big events. The Malaga native has only played in five tournaments on the circuit and has made the cut in four of them. This year for example, he has participated in three top category events and his worst result is a thirty-third place. In the other two he finished twenty-first. His debut on the European Circuit was in a Valderrama where he allowed himself the luxury of passing the cut with his 17 years completed a few days before. Only the Acciona Open of Spain resisted him. That’s Ángel and today was not going to be less.
A round watered with six birdies and two bogeys have allowed him to stand, provisionally, in eighth place. Orderly round from the tee and with the putt he has also been very comfortable, even putting one from beyond seven meters to add his second birdie of the day.
His two stumbles have come on the flags of holes 6 and 17 precisely two of the par 3s on the course. In fact, although the par threes have caused him headaches, they have also seen his best shot. It was on hole 14, his fifth of the day, 164 meters and with the flag position right in the center of the green. Ángel hit a guided shot that left less than a meter to the right of the flag. Spectacular.
Of the rest of the Spaniards who have started the tournament in this morning shift, the -2 with which Ángel Hidalgo has started stands out. The Andalusian has managed to turn around a round that was somewhat twisted. He pricked on the tee of hole 12 with a partial of +1. Three birdies in that final stretch put him in the noble positions of the table (18th at the time of writing these lines).
The double champion of the tournament, Gonzalo Fernández Castaño (-2) has also started with a more than positive card of 69. He started from hole 10 and his first round has been a roller coaster with four birdies and two bogeys. Quite the opposite have been the second nines in which he has chained nine pars in a row.
It is up to the Madrid native to validate two solid consecutive rounds. Both in the KLM Open and in the Challenge of Spain he started at a great level that he did not manage to maintain the second day.
A pity what happened to the youngest of the Elvira. Manu (PAR) was three under par on his sixteenth hole of the day, the 8th of the course as he started on the 10th. A double bogey and a bogey have tarnished a round that was being of a very high level. On hole 8 he visited the water and did not manage to save the bogey. On the last hole of the day a shot that went excessively to the right prevented him from catching the green two and he did not achieve the recovery. As said, a pity because the Santander native was playing a round of many carats. Pablo Larrazábal (-1) has started in Ravenna with a round of 70 strokes.
In the morning shift, Andrea Pavan (-7), leader of the event so far, along with Gunter Wiebe and Sebastian Friedrichsen has shone especially. The Italian player seeks to win his first national open and with a card of 65 strokes he has provisionally risen to the top. The transalpine who just a few months ago was playing on the Challenge Tour, seeks at home a victory on the DP World Tour that has resisted him for almost five years. Last week he already played at a great level and finished fourth in the Netherlands.
