Great debut of Adrían Otaegui (-5) at the start of the Italian Open presented by Emilia Romagna. Only the Swede Markus Kinhult (-6) has been better than the Spaniard in the afternoon round of this first day held at Adriatic Golf Club Cervia. located in Ravenna The Spaniard has handed in a card of 65 strokes that have put him squarely at the top of the table, tied with the Spaniard Adri Arnaus in sixth place.
Three birdies and one bogey in the first nine holes today and as many birdies without mistakes in the second round. The Spaniard has been very orderly and has been building his round with a great putter. He has sunk four putts over five meters, one of them, to close the round, has been over eight meters.
The only downside that can be attributed to the Basque has been not taking advantage of any of the three par fives on the course. Of the top ten of the day, Otaegui has been the only one unable to make a birdie on any of the three.
The Spaniard is pushing his chances of qualifying for the British Open and with this start the outlook is promising. Right now, Otaegui is qualified for being one of the top five in the Race to Dubai who is not qualified by other means. Specifically, he is the fifth, so he needs to score as much as possible to prevent anyone from overtaking him. Logically, a superlative result this week could put him directly in the last Major of the year as this event also distributes two places to the top two who are not already qualified. Both routes remain open and the Basque wants to secure them as soon as possible in his favour. Here are the possible scenarios.
Truth be told, an afternoon round with a much more demanding course has been seen, especially on the greens. As the afternoon progressed, the putts had to be hit with much more intensity than in the morning. The Basque has been able to adapt perfectly to the changing conditions.
Of the rest of the Spaniards who have appeared in the afternoon, none have been able to beat the course. Alfredo García Heredia and Iván Cantero (PAR) have handed in a card of 71 strokes while Alex del Rey (+1) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (+2) will also have to gain strokes on the course if they want to play the weekend. The one who will have it very difficult will be the Galician Santi Tarrio who with a card of 78 strokes will need to fly very low tomorrow in Ravenna to give himself any chance of playing the weekend.
