Virto aims second title

Spain’s Borja Virto (c) Agathe Séron

Spain’s Borja Virto took a one shot lead in La Pinetina Open Memorial Giorgio Bordoni. He signed for 64 following his overnight 65. France’s Dominique Nouailhac despite his injury is still in contention for first win this season.

Virto is currently 5^th in the Alps Tour ranking. He won his maiden title last June on home soil and a second victory will secure his place in the top 5 to play the Challenge Tour next year. He is in good form as he kept on playing tournaments in August while the Alps Tour made a break.

“Everything came together these past two days. I hit pretty much all the fairwayws, a lots of greens and hit good putts and making some of them. I have just been playing well. During summer I played two Challenge Tour events, one in Finland and one in Ireland. I made the cuts each and finished 29^th in Finland and 50^th in Ireland, not very good but ok. The greens here are just slow so I just tried to hit it hard enough to get to the hole. It is a little bit bumpy but I made some of them.”

The 23 year old Spaniard admitted he tried not to think about the result but when he was holing all these birdies he realized that a win could really be great to feel lighter on the course for the end of the season.

France’s Dominqiue Nouailhac confirmed first round good form and scored 67 with 6 birdies and 3 bogeys.

“This morning, the medical team took care of my calf. I have a muscle tear. They started with a long painful massage because the muscle was under pressure, then hydrotherapy. They made a tight bandage so I could walk and play.
I made two mistakes, one on the 6^th and one on the 9^th where I was short of the green, I did not feel the shot and I didn’t play it. And I three putted the 18^th. But all in all, I have played better than yesterday. ”

These two players should pay attention to the third lad on the provisional podium. England’s Tom Shadbolt likes the course very much. He has been training all summer and he managed to erase the bad shots of his round. The 26 year old player from Luton, near London, managed to tame the greens.

“I played very conservative on my front nine from 10^th to 18^th and I turned over par then on the back nine I decided to go for the flags and I scored 4 under. I have heard some players moaning about the greens but honestly the course is good. It is easy for me to say that but there are few places on greens where you should not be. Obviously if you ended 15 meters from the flag, it is tough.”

Finally, the greatest shot of the day was Austrian. Uli Weinhandl holed an amazing albatross (double eagle) on the 8^th hole. Thanks to these three shots earned in one hole, and a flawless card, he fired 64 and made the cut after his very shy first round 73.

“I hit a hybrid and it was straight to the flag but I could not see it goes to the green. When I walked, I didn’t see my ball on the green so I first thought I stayed short, but nothing. So I started to think that maybe the ball was in… This is the first albatross of my career. And the funniest thing is that I was pretty sure that 90% of the internet viewers thought it was a scoring mistake!”

From La Pinetina
Agathe Séron