Golf, Italian Open: Pavon remains in command. Paratore (26th) is the best of the Italians

ROME – An ordinary round in 70 strokes (-1) was enough a Mathieu Pavonthe French leader of the first lap, to stay in front of everyone and not even with a very short nose at theItalian Opensince the Spanish Otaegui (his 67 during the day was excellent) and the other French Warriors (69) chasing by two strokes. The Polish comeback deserves attention Meronk, fourth with one more shot. Four birdies and a bogey (the first in two days) for him who is proving to be the most regular. He has had four good placements in America this year and is growing steadily. Better keep an eye on him over the weekend.

The field wins its challenge

If after two days of good weather and moderate wind the best of all is nine shots under par, and a -1 round was enough for him to stay on top, it simply means that the course is once again holding up his challenge with the players, as evidenced by the cut threshold for admission to the final two days, set at +2. Predictably it will be more than challenging for the Ryder Cup in September, when it will have undergone other small modifications aimed at making it a little indigestible to American bombers and when the rough (high grass areas) will have grown further. Meanwhile, the 26-year-old South African Lawrence hitting hole 7 (a 200-metre par 3) with his first shot, he won the car offered by sponsor DS. A good consolation because, despite that eagle, he is out of the tournament. A super hit is not enough to make a result.

The Italian clan decimated

The guillotine of cutting has drastically thinned out the Italian clan. Only three survivors: the best was Renato Paratore, 26-year-old enfant du pays born and raised golfing at the Parco di Roma, a course about ten km from the Marco Simone. A careful and patient round, started badly (bogey at 1) but recovered well with 4 birdies to cushion the second bogey collected on the very delicate hole 14. Closing in 69 strokes he climbed the ranking up to 26th place, shared with another subject to be monitored , the Danish Nicolai Hojgaardwinner here in ’21 and today author of a good 68. The surprise is Aaron Zemmer, a thirty-year-old South Tyrolean from the Alpe di Siusi, used to competing in minor circuits but proved to be perfectly at ease here, so much so that he qualified without difficulty with a close-par lap that earned him 33rd place and a night of satisfaction and adrenaline for the last two competition days. Hope is Improvements (as well as Paratore of course) who had to limit the damage of a non-exceptional day of his, closed in 74 rounds. He’s 33rd with par: he should change gears to climb up the standings but in the meantime he’s there and at a certain point it didn’t seem so obvious.