Golf, Italian Open: Pavon always commands, the best Paratore of the Italians

While the Italian Open (undergoing at the Marco Simone Golf in Guidonia, near Rome) loses its defender Robert MacIntyre to a back injury (however not brilliant in the first round finished in 73 shots), the competition sees no important changes at the top. With a few exceptions, the main players remain the same. And they mostly speak French. Matthieu Pavon, in the lead yesterday, maintains the leadership but changes gears. Far from the stellar game of the first round with nine birdies (“Everything excellent, drive on the track and very few putts”, he said), he manages better today gaining only one shot (63-70, -9). The thirty-year-old from Toulouse, with a ten-year career, has never won but, as he says, since the beginning of the week he has had the best sensations ever. Today, however, “a round that started well, then even small mistakes that this course does not forgive, however, recovering par is difficult. Everything is more complicated, faster greens and more difficult flags”. The plan is simple: “to rest, then gymnastics and a practice session; if I’m physically fit and my head helps me over the weekend, I can do well”.

The wind

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It is Julien Guerrier who presses him, but the attack becomes less incisive in the wind that rises in the afternoon. He earns him one stroke but has to split second place (66-69, 7 strokes under par overall). “Taking 17 greens like I did yesterday helps a lot,” said the pro (36) originally from Evreux in northern France, with a passion for sailing and squash. After all, the family pedigree has a noteworthy sporting connotation (grandfather a world champion fencer, grandmother in the French national basketball team and mother in the first division, father a footballer in Serie B). For him, a golf story that began as a child and culminated with victory in the 2006 Amateur Championship. Returning first, Adrian Otaegui joins him (68-67 his scores, -7 in total) who climbs six positions in the standings. The thirty-year-old Spaniard from San Sebastian had highlighted his excellent amateur skills, then as a pro he won 4 times and last year he decided to join the new league led by Greg Norman and financed by Saudi Arabia. Choosing the path of the LIV, breaking the rules of the DP World Tour, has just cost him a fine of 100 thousand pounds. For the organization he would certainly not be the ideal winner.

Cutting

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The cut falls to +2 and leaves 72 players in the game. In Italy, the support over the weekend will be for the Roman Renato Paratore, twenty-fifth (72-69; -1): “It wasn’t an easy day, the wind conditioned the game, especially on the greens. For me it was a very positive”. There will be Aron Zemmer (71-71; par): “I achieved my first goal, to overcome the gap. Now I’m aiming for a place in the top twenty”. And Guido Migliozzi will play (69-74; +1). Amateurs Marco Florioli and Pietro Bovari (world champions in teams last September) fall on the most difficult hole of this Open. The 8, par 4 480 meters long with water to the left and before the green (4.72 his score after two rounds), cost Florioli nine strokes and two to Bovari, just when in the closing stages he was on the cutting edge.