Ángel Ayora (-4) has delivered a card of 66 strokes on the first day of the Italian Open. Great start. He has provisionally placed himself in second position, just one stroke behind the leader Andreas Halvorsen (-5). If Ayora’s golf is known for anything, it is because he often makes what seems extraordinarily difficult look easy. Well, today was a day of hard work. Against his usual style. He had to roll up his sleeves. He cooked the result slowly.
It wasn’t an easy day, far from it. He started with a birdie on the 12th (he began on the 10th), but from there, three tough holes followed. On the 13th, he missed to the right rough. A grave. He barely managed to move it 60 metres hitting the pitching wedge to the max. He made a movie-like approach to save par. Immediately after, he dropped a bogey after missing a short putt and on the 15th, he linked a second bogey. That said, it must be noted that it was a good bogey, saving the situation from off the green.
Angel Ayora demonstrates how to play a flop shot to perfection from thick rough 👌#ItalianOpen pic.twitter.com/utlCF1LknG
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 26, 2025
It wasn’t exactly the best omen. Ayora was at this point in the round saving delicate situations more than giving himself birdie chances. However, his grit was fantastic, he had an exemplary attitude and received the deserved reward. On the 16th, he made a birdie from off the green and added another on the 18th with a great putt. He passed the halfway mark with one under par. Great harvest.
On the second nine, more of the same. He made two very good birdies on the 2nd and 5th (the best shot of the day) and finished with a masterpiece on the 9th. He missed the green to the right and holed from off the green, from the rough, with a spectacular approach. It was a hard-fought round, one that gives even more satisfaction than when it comes easy.
The scores are not low. There are fewer than 40 rounds under par and the vast majority are just one or two under par. The issue is that the rough is brutal. It practically forces you to lose a stroke unless you perform heroics. Birdies can be made, but bogeys also fall with relative ease. In fact, only two error-free cards have been seen (Will Besseling and Marcel Schneider).
Ayora was the best Spaniard of the morning session in Italy. A good start also for Pablo Larrazábal and Manu Elvira. Both have scored -1 and are positioned in the upper half of the table, very close to the leading positions. Manu recovered wonderfully from two double bogeys, while Pablo finished with two magnificent birdies on holes 7 and 8.
Further back is Eugenio Chacarra (PAR), as well as Ángel Hidalgo (+2), Alfredo García Heredia (+2) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (+6). The Canary Islander paid a high price for two very bad consecutive holes (18 and 1), where he linked a double bogey and a quadruple bogey.
