Marcel Siem (-10) has won the Italian Open after defeating an unexpected opponent, Tom McKibbin (-10), with a birdie on the first playoff hole, who had signed his card more than three hours before the star match did, in which Siem was precisely marching. Now we will go with that convoluted story…
But let’s stop first at the veteran German player, who has just added his sixth victory on the European circuit and who, about to turn 44, remains a breath of fresh air. For his way of understanding life and golf, for how fortunate he feels to be a golfer, for that flowery and radiant way of dressing, absolutely non-transferable (anyone who tries to wear his clothes will normally make a fool of themselves, but they suit him well), for how he lives the competition, for how he celebrates on the field, so intense, so festive…
In addition to being a perpetual breath of fresh air, Siem is also an unfathomable box of surprises: when it seems that he has been left behind, he may actually be gaining momentum; when victory seems his, it is still possible that he leaves the back door open. (Not to mention the fact that he has won again after undergoing surgery this year on a hip that has had him stopped for three months).
Today, without going any further, on a very complicated day, because that gusty and treacherous wind has blown more than any day on the Adriatic Golf Club Cervia, the Teuton was passing through hole 9 with a partial of three less, powerful and in full control. Then, the drama began… Both he and his match partner, Antoine Rozner (-8), began to make mistakes and sign bogeys. Both seemed destined to play the tournament in the final sprint, but as the blots fell on their respective cards, the shadow of McKibbin grew, who had delivered the best result of the day long before (score of 65 strokes) and waited in the clubhouse, between incredulous and excited. It even seemed that the young Northern Irishman would not even have to go out to play a playoff, but Siem plugged in a seven-meter putt on the 18th to make an unlikely birdie and force it. As we said: when Siem seems to give up, he may actually just be gaining momentum… As unpredictable as he is exuberant.
In short, Siem enters the circle of winners again; Rozner, despite slipping in the last nine, returns to peek into the hot zone after two rather irregular months; and McKibbin at least takes one of the two spots for the Open that were distributed this week (the other has been for the American Sean Crocker). Adri Arnaus (-8) has not been too far from any of these goals with a final card of 69 strokes, again very worked and even suffered at times, although he coincides with Rozner in the positive and newsworthy fact of returning to peek into the top of the table. The Catalan leaves Italy with new vigor after gaining more than thirty places in the Race to Dubai and proving to himself that, indeed, he is capable of achieving good results, even without his A version.
Adrián Otaegui (-6), however, has paid dearly for a troubled start to the round and a double bogey on hole 8, par 3, after sending the ball into the water just as he was coming back with birdies on holes 6 and 7. It was not his day, it is evident, but at least he keeps his options to get into the Open through the Race to Dubai intact, although he will still have to defend them next week at the BMW International. Ángel Ayora (-4), for his part, has turned around a round that looked bad (he started with three consecutive bogeys), while Ángel Hidalgo (-4), faithful to his non-negotiable principle of never lowering his arms, climbed more than twenty positions with a round of 68 strokes.
