EUROPEAN TOUR REPORT AND SCORES
Big guns taking aim at Italian Open
EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
Jens Fahrbring of Sweden and the Dane Lucas Bjerregaard share the halfway lead at the 72° OPEN D'ITALIA presented by DAMIANI, but the Scandinavian duo will have to hold off a world-class chasing pack if they are to get their hands on the trophy on Sunday afternoon.
Martin Kaymer, Nicolas Colsaerts, Danny Willett, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Bernd Wiesberger are among the big names taking aim at the leaders as the quality quintet moved within striking distance.
Fahrbring and Bjerregaard set the pace of 13 under par after respective second round scores of 64 and 65, with last year’s US Open Champion Kaymer carding a 66 to move to ten under, joining Weisberger, Rikard Karlberg, Craig Lee, David Lipsky and leading Italian Andrea Perrino in a tie for seventh place.
Jiménez and Willett are one stroke behind Kaymer and company, while Colsaerts followed up his outstanding first round of 63 with a solid 70 to join Pedro Oriol, Romain Wattell and Fabrizio Zanotti in a tie for third place just two strokes off the lead.
It was an emotional day at the Golf Club Milano as Italian golf legend Costantino Rocca waved farewell to an adoring home crowd as he made his last appearance on The European Tour.
The 58 year old, who enjoyed a brilliant career that included a victory in The European Tour’s flagship event, the 1996 PGA Championship, as well as making three Ryder Cup appearances and helping Europe to victories in 1995 and 1997. Rocca remains the only player to have defeated Tiger Woods in a Ryder Cup singles match, beating the great American 4 and 2 at Valderrama in 1997.
Player Quotes
Jens Fahrbring: “I am quite surprised where I am because I was not well at the start of this week. I picked up a cold and a fever last week in Kazakhstan on the Challenge Tour so yesterday was a struggle and I didn’t expect to play so well. Today was a little better in terms of how I felt, and perhaps being unwell helped calm me down and lowered my expectations.
“It was great to be out there with Lucas as he was playing well and we have played a lot of golf together over the years so I think we helped each other along.
“Winning this year on the Challenge Tour has taught me a lot about my game. The more you can do that and put yourself under pressure then the better player you will become. Hopefully that helps into this weekend but this is the first time I have been this high at a European Tour event.”
Lucas Bjergaard: “It was great to be able to follow up yesterday’s score with another good one today – I can take a lot of confidence from that. I didn’t play as well as I did yesterday, especially off the tee but I made some good par saves.
“I am looking forward to the weekend – hopefully I can keep it going and draw on the experiences I have built up to get into contention. It’s been a tough summer for me so it’s nice to be in this position again.
“I was in the final group going into the last round at Leopard Creek and had a really bad day, but I have to use that experience going into the weekend here and hopefully I can do that because I learned a lot about being in that situation and a lot about myself as a person in South Africa.”
“It was great fun to play with Jens today – it’s nice to see him bringing his great form from the Challenge Tour onto The European Tour.”
Martin Kaymer: “I didn’t play as well as yesterday in terms of striking the ball but I managed the par fives really well today and played them in five under par and then it was nice to finish off with a birdie to put myself in a really good position for the weekend.
“These are the days you need to enjoy because it was one of those days where I scored better than I played and they do not come along too often – usually it goes the other way! The main difference to yesterday was that I missed more fairways than yesterday and six under isn’t an amazing score today but ten under for two rounds is not too bad.
“I feel like I have been playing good for the last couple of months but not good enough to have a chance on Sunday, but it has been getting better and better and hopefully I can give myself a chance to win this weekend.”
Complete Second Round Scores:
par 144 (2x72)
131 L Bjerregaard (Den) 66 65, J Fahrbring (Swe) 67 64,
133 R Wattel (Fra) 67 66, P Oriol (Esp) 68 65, F Zanotti (Par) 66 67, N Colsaerts (Bel) 63 70,
134 D Lipsky (USA) 67 67, M Kaymer (Ger) 68 66, B Wiesberger (Aut) 66 68, C Lee (Sco) 67 67, A Perrino (Ita) 67 67, R Karlberg (Swe) 67 67,
135 D Willett (Eng) 68 67, M Jiménez (Esp) 69 66, P Lawrie (Irl) 68 67,
136 M Lundberg (Swe) 68 68, M Nixon (Eng) 67 69, W Ormsby (Aus) 69 67, D Brooks (Eng) 71 65, J Scrivener (Aus) 68 68, M Korhonen (Fin) 66 70, J Van Zyl (RSA) 71 65, S Fernandez (am) (Esp) 69 67, S Mazzoli (am) (Ita) 66 70,
137 M Foster (Eng) 66 71, R Santos (Por) 69 68, J Barnes (Eng) 69 68, K Broberg (Swe) 65 72, A Cañizares (Esp) 68 69, M Ford (Eng) 69 68, S Cink (USA) 69 68, G Storm (Eng) 71 66, P Maddy (Eng) 68 69, J Singh (Ind) 68 69, S Fallon (Eng) 67 70, T Fleetwood (Eng) 70 67, S Kapur (Ind) 65 72, L Gagli (Ita) 67 70, F Molinari (Ita) 65 72, L Scalise (am) (Ita) 71 66,
138 J Lando Casanova (Fra) 71 67, S Chawrasia (Ind) 69 69, M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 70 68, B Hebert (Fra) 69 69, E Kofstad (Nor) 69 69, J Lagergren (Swe) 72 66, O Fisher (Eng) 70 68,
139 E Molinari (Ita) 72 67, D Fichardt (RSA) 69 70, W Homan (USA) 73 66, R Kakko (Fin) 67 72, G Mulroy (RSA) 72 67, D Drysdale (Sco) 70 69, R Rock (Eng) 72 67, V Riu (Fra) 71 68, R Cabrera-Bello (Esp) 70 69, M Bremner (RSA) 71 68, E Goya (Arg) 71 68, D Howell (Eng) 70 69, E De La Riva (Esp) 69 70, Y Yang (SKor) 68 71, T Lewis (Eng) 72 67,
140 P McGinley (Irl) 68 72, M Crespi (Ita) 70 70, F Fritsch (Ger) 68 72, M Tullo (Chi) 69 71, S Manley (Wal) 72 68, T Olesen (Den) 72 68, R Gonzalez (Arg) 68 72, D Clarke (Nir) 70 70, T Fisher Jnr (RSA) 71 69, H Otto (RSA) 69 71, P Harrington (Irl) 70 70, J Roos (RSA) 70 70, R Karlsson (Swe) 69 71, J Parry (Eng) 71 69, J Lara (Esp) 68 72, A Levy (Fra) 70 70,
141 R Ramsay (Sco) 74 67, A Hansen (Den) 68 73, P Uihlein (USA) 73 68, C Sordet (Fra) 71 70, F Aguilar (Chi) 72 69, B Evans (Eng) 70 71, O Farr (Wal) 71 70, R Finch (Eng) 72 69, S Wakefield (Eng) 70 71, J Edfors (Swe) 70 71, T Van Der Walt (RSA) 71 70, S Kjeldsen (Den) 69 72, M Manassero (Ita) 70 71, D Gaunt (Aus) 72 69, R Jacquelin (Fra) 70 71, A Quiros (Esp) 68 73, R Bland (Eng) 71 70, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 71 70, C Paisley (Eng) 70 71, E Pepperell (Eng) 72 69,
142 C Bouniol (Fra) 71 71, A Pavan (Ita) 69 73, B Ritthammer (Ger) 73 69, N Quintarelli (Ita) 74 68, S Benson (Eng) 71 71, H Joannes (Bel) 71 71, D Woltman (USA) 71 71, B Virto Astudillo (Esp) 66 76, A Tadini (Ita) 71 71, A Maestroni (Ita) 70 72, J Campillo (Esp) 70 72, M Fraser (Aus) 72 70, N Elvira (Esp) 72 70, A Otaegui (Esp) 72 70, M Madsen (Den) 73 69,
143 A Zemmer (Ita) 76 67, R Dinwiddie (Eng) 70 73, J Hahn (USA) 72 71, N Ravano (Ita) 73 70, J Morrison (Eng) 70 73, J Kim (Ita) 72 71, C Lloyd (Eng) 75 68, S Hend (Aus) 69 74, G Bourdy (Fra) 72 71, S Thornton (Irl) 73 70, J Vecchi Fossa (am) (Ita) 69 74,
144 C Del Moral (Esp) 73 71, A Hortal (Esp) 71 73,
145 K Phelan (Irl) 73 72, P Edberg (Swe) 74 71, P Widegren (Swe) 76 69, S Hansen (Den) 73 72, A Bruschi (Ita) 73 72,
146 J Kruger (RSA) 72 74, D McGrane (Irl) 72 74, O Wilson (Eng) 73 73, F Maccario (Ita) 77 69, S Hutsby (Eng) 70 76, M Delpodio (Ita) 75 71,
147 R Paratore (Ita) 72 75, J Garcia Pinto (Esp) 75 72, P Sjöland (Swe) 73 74, B Neil (Sco) 75 72, L Jensen (Den) 76 71, M Ortolani (am) (Ita) 74 73,
148 N Fasth (Swe) 75 73, D Vancsik (Arg) 74 74, M Florioli (Ita) 76 72, A Velasco (Esp) 75 73, G Havret (Fra) 74 74, L Cianchetti (am) (Ita) 73 75,
149 G Moynihan (Irl) 73 76, R McEvoy (Eng) 73 76,
150 J Walters (RSA) 73 77,
152 C Rocca (Ita) 80 72,
153 L Magini (Ita) 78 75,
158 M Grönberg (Swe) 81 77,
** C Doak (Sco) 72 DQ,
EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
Jens Fahrbring of Sweden and the Dane Lucas Bjerregaard share the halfway lead at the 72° OPEN D'ITALIA presented by DAMIANI, but the Scandinavian duo will have to hold off a world-class chasing pack if they are to get their hands on the trophy on Sunday afternoon.
Martin Kaymer, Nicolas Colsaerts, Danny Willett, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Bernd Wiesberger are among the big names taking aim at the leaders as the quality quintet moved within striking distance.
Fahrbring and Bjerregaard set the pace of 13 under par after respective second round scores of 64 and 65, with last year’s US Open Champion Kaymer carding a 66 to move to ten under, joining Weisberger, Rikard Karlberg, Craig Lee, David Lipsky and leading Italian Andrea Perrino in a tie for seventh place.
Jiménez and Willett are one stroke behind Kaymer and company, while Colsaerts followed up his outstanding first round of 63 with a solid 70 to join Pedro Oriol, Romain Wattell and Fabrizio Zanotti in a tie for third place just two strokes off the lead.
It was an emotional day at the Golf Club Milano as Italian golf legend Costantino Rocca waved farewell to an adoring home crowd as he made his last appearance on The European Tour.
The 58 year old, who enjoyed a brilliant career that included a victory in The European Tour’s flagship event, the 1996 PGA Championship, as well as making three Ryder Cup appearances and helping Europe to victories in 1995 and 1997. Rocca remains the only player to have defeated Tiger Woods in a Ryder Cup singles match, beating the great American 4 and 2 at Valderrama in 1997.
Player Quotes
Jens Fahrbring: “I am quite surprised where I am because I was not well at the start of this week. I picked up a cold and a fever last week in Kazakhstan on the Challenge Tour so yesterday was a struggle and I didn’t expect to play so well. Today was a little better in terms of how I felt, and perhaps being unwell helped calm me down and lowered my expectations.
“It was great to be out there with Lucas as he was playing well and we have played a lot of golf together over the years so I think we helped each other along.
“Winning this year on the Challenge Tour has taught me a lot about my game. The more you can do that and put yourself under pressure then the better player you will become. Hopefully that helps into this weekend but this is the first time I have been this high at a European Tour event.”
Lucas Bjergaard: “It was great to be able to follow up yesterday’s score with another good one today – I can take a lot of confidence from that. I didn’t play as well as I did yesterday, especially off the tee but I made some good par saves.
“I am looking forward to the weekend – hopefully I can keep it going and draw on the experiences I have built up to get into contention. It’s been a tough summer for me so it’s nice to be in this position again.
“I was in the final group going into the last round at Leopard Creek and had a really bad day, but I have to use that experience going into the weekend here and hopefully I can do that because I learned a lot about being in that situation and a lot about myself as a person in South Africa.”
“It was great fun to play with Jens today – it’s nice to see him bringing his great form from the Challenge Tour onto The European Tour.”
Martin Kaymer: “I didn’t play as well as yesterday in terms of striking the ball but I managed the par fives really well today and played them in five under par and then it was nice to finish off with a birdie to put myself in a really good position for the weekend.
“These are the days you need to enjoy because it was one of those days where I scored better than I played and they do not come along too often – usually it goes the other way! The main difference to yesterday was that I missed more fairways than yesterday and six under isn’t an amazing score today but ten under for two rounds is not too bad.
“I feel like I have been playing good for the last couple of months but not good enough to have a chance on Sunday, but it has been getting better and better and hopefully I can give myself a chance to win this weekend.”
Complete Second Round Scores:
par 144 (2x72)
131 L Bjerregaard (Den) 66 65, J Fahrbring (Swe) 67 64,
133 R Wattel (Fra) 67 66, P Oriol (Esp) 68 65, F Zanotti (Par) 66 67, N Colsaerts (Bel) 63 70,
134 D Lipsky (USA) 67 67, M Kaymer (Ger) 68 66, B Wiesberger (Aut) 66 68, C Lee (Sco) 67 67, A Perrino (Ita) 67 67, R Karlberg (Swe) 67 67,
135 D Willett (Eng) 68 67, M Jiménez (Esp) 69 66, P Lawrie (Irl) 68 67,
136 M Lundberg (Swe) 68 68, M Nixon (Eng) 67 69, W Ormsby (Aus) 69 67, D Brooks (Eng) 71 65, J Scrivener (Aus) 68 68, M Korhonen (Fin) 66 70, J Van Zyl (RSA) 71 65, S Fernandez (am) (Esp) 69 67, S Mazzoli (am) (Ita) 66 70,
137 M Foster (Eng) 66 71, R Santos (Por) 69 68, J Barnes (Eng) 69 68, K Broberg (Swe) 65 72, A Cañizares (Esp) 68 69, M Ford (Eng) 69 68, S Cink (USA) 69 68, G Storm (Eng) 71 66, P Maddy (Eng) 68 69, J Singh (Ind) 68 69, S Fallon (Eng) 67 70, T Fleetwood (Eng) 70 67, S Kapur (Ind) 65 72, L Gagli (Ita) 67 70, F Molinari (Ita) 65 72, L Scalise (am) (Ita) 71 66,
138 J Lando Casanova (Fra) 71 67, S Chawrasia (Ind) 69 69, M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 70 68, B Hebert (Fra) 69 69, E Kofstad (Nor) 69 69, J Lagergren (Swe) 72 66, O Fisher (Eng) 70 68,
139 E Molinari (Ita) 72 67, D Fichardt (RSA) 69 70, W Homan (USA) 73 66, R Kakko (Fin) 67 72, G Mulroy (RSA) 72 67, D Drysdale (Sco) 70 69, R Rock (Eng) 72 67, V Riu (Fra) 71 68, R Cabrera-Bello (Esp) 70 69, M Bremner (RSA) 71 68, E Goya (Arg) 71 68, D Howell (Eng) 70 69, E De La Riva (Esp) 69 70, Y Yang (SKor) 68 71, T Lewis (Eng) 72 67,
140 P McGinley (Irl) 68 72, M Crespi (Ita) 70 70, F Fritsch (Ger) 68 72, M Tullo (Chi) 69 71, S Manley (Wal) 72 68, T Olesen (Den) 72 68, R Gonzalez (Arg) 68 72, D Clarke (Nir) 70 70, T Fisher Jnr (RSA) 71 69, H Otto (RSA) 69 71, P Harrington (Irl) 70 70, J Roos (RSA) 70 70, R Karlsson (Swe) 69 71, J Parry (Eng) 71 69, J Lara (Esp) 68 72, A Levy (Fra) 70 70,
141 R Ramsay (Sco) 74 67, A Hansen (Den) 68 73, P Uihlein (USA) 73 68, C Sordet (Fra) 71 70, F Aguilar (Chi) 72 69, B Evans (Eng) 70 71, O Farr (Wal) 71 70, R Finch (Eng) 72 69, S Wakefield (Eng) 70 71, J Edfors (Swe) 70 71, T Van Der Walt (RSA) 71 70, S Kjeldsen (Den) 69 72, M Manassero (Ita) 70 71, D Gaunt (Aus) 72 69, R Jacquelin (Fra) 70 71, A Quiros (Esp) 68 73, R Bland (Eng) 71 70, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 71 70, C Paisley (Eng) 70 71, E Pepperell (Eng) 72 69,
142 C Bouniol (Fra) 71 71, A Pavan (Ita) 69 73, B Ritthammer (Ger) 73 69, N Quintarelli (Ita) 74 68, S Benson (Eng) 71 71, H Joannes (Bel) 71 71, D Woltman (USA) 71 71, B Virto Astudillo (Esp) 66 76, A Tadini (Ita) 71 71, A Maestroni (Ita) 70 72, J Campillo (Esp) 70 72, M Fraser (Aus) 72 70, N Elvira (Esp) 72 70, A Otaegui (Esp) 72 70, M Madsen (Den) 73 69,
143 A Zemmer (Ita) 76 67, R Dinwiddie (Eng) 70 73, J Hahn (USA) 72 71, N Ravano (Ita) 73 70, J Morrison (Eng) 70 73, J Kim (Ita) 72 71, C Lloyd (Eng) 75 68, S Hend (Aus) 69 74, G Bourdy (Fra) 72 71, S Thornton (Irl) 73 70, J Vecchi Fossa (am) (Ita) 69 74,
144 C Del Moral (Esp) 73 71, A Hortal (Esp) 71 73,
145 K Phelan (Irl) 73 72, P Edberg (Swe) 74 71, P Widegren (Swe) 76 69, S Hansen (Den) 73 72, A Bruschi (Ita) 73 72,
146 J Kruger (RSA) 72 74, D McGrane (Irl) 72 74, O Wilson (Eng) 73 73, F Maccario (Ita) 77 69, S Hutsby (Eng) 70 76, M Delpodio (Ita) 75 71,
147 R Paratore (Ita) 72 75, J Garcia Pinto (Esp) 75 72, P Sjöland (Swe) 73 74, B Neil (Sco) 75 72, L Jensen (Den) 76 71, M Ortolani (am) (Ita) 74 73,
148 N Fasth (Swe) 75 73, D Vancsik (Arg) 74 74, M Florioli (Ita) 76 72, A Velasco (Esp) 75 73, G Havret (Fra) 74 74, L Cianchetti (am) (Ita) 73 75,
149 G Moynihan (Irl) 73 76, R McEvoy (Eng) 73 76,
150 J Walters (RSA) 73 77,
152 C Rocca (Ita) 80 72,
153 L Magini (Ita) 78 75,
158 M Grönberg (Swe) 81 77,
** C Doak (Sco) 72 DQ,
EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
Labels: EUROPEAN TOUR
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See story on its own page | Friday, September 18, 2015
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