Matteo Manassero (-7) and Mikko Korhonen (-7) are the co-leaders of the KLM Open after the first day. The Italian has signed one of the three bogey-free cards that have been given on the interesting course of The International (Amsterdam, Netherlands). And the Finn has rung in a single round two bells that do not usually coincide: the co-leadership and a hole in one, which he starred in hole 4, already in the last third of his round (need proof? Gavin Green (-2), for example, made another hole in one at 17 today and it was only enough for him to finish the day in 23rd place).
The fact is that Manassero is just the tip of a curious iceberg. Up to six Italian players fill the top 12 of the tournament after 18 holes. Namely: Manassero (-7), Edoardo Molinari (-5), Filippo Celli (-4), Francesco Laporta (-3), Andrera Pavan (-3) and Guido Migliozzi (-3). Who knows, maybe it’s time for the vendetta in the land of tulips, because the historical record could not be more eloquent: this tournament, the Open of the Netherlands, has been part of the European circuit since its birth in 1972 and in the 51 editions that have already been played (in 2020 it was not played due to the pandemic) an Italian player has never won. Neither has he won nor has he finished in second position. Nothing at all. There are many holes ahead, it is true, but these kinds of opportunities do not present themselves many times…
(Let’s be rigorous: the first edition of the Dutch Open was played in 1912 and in the fifties there were two Italian victories, those of Ugo Grappasonni (1954) and Alfonso Angelini (1955), although they did not occur on the European circuit, as we know it today).
The afternoon shift of play, in which for example the two co-leaders were marching, has been noticeably more benign, since the wind has been losing intensity as the hours passed. Ángel Hidalgo (-2), to give just one example, has come to flirt with the leadership at some stages of his round after a galactic start with four consecutive birdies, but then he would stumble through the second nine of the Dutch course, so the card of 69 strokes of Gonzalo Fernández Castaño (-3), who played in the morning, remains the best of the Armada.
