Angel Hidalgo Portillo Comes Through to Claim Victory
June 18th, 2021 – Como, Italy. Angel Hidalgo Portillo went right down to the line today but pulled off his second Alps Tour victory of the year to raise the trophy of the Memorial Giorgio Bordoni on -14 (196) at the GC Pinetina.
It was not all plain sailing for the Spaniard though as he got off to a wobbly start: “I started well, made two solid putts and then on the fourth I don’t know what happened. I hit a straight shot OB and I started to feel not nervous, but the feeling was not solid. Then I made a bogey on the seventh. At that point I said to myself whoa, I need to start to make a few birdies”.
At this stage after the double bogey and bogey Hidalgo was sitting -10 and the tournament looked to be slipping through his fingers as he had fallen back to fourth place, three strokes behind the leader. But he remained focussed and turned the tide: “I made a good birdie on the tenth and from then I felt better. I’ve played the back nine really well all week and today I had two great putts for birdie on the sixteenth and seventeenth.”
With four birdies under his belt, he headed to the eighteenth green on -14:” I had my eye on the leader board a lot of the time, but it was funny on the 18th fairway as I saw that the Italian guy (Giovanni Manzoni) was 14 under and I said, okay, I just need to make par and maybe go to a play-off but that’s okay. So, I focussed on just making par and when I got to the green and was looking at the slope my caddy said, “two putts is enough” and that’s what I did”.
Indeed, the Italian amateur Giovanni Manzoni had played a dream round today with a perfect card bearing 7 birdies and sitting fourteen under on the eighteenth. But his sole bogey of the day stole victory from him giving him a more than respectable joint second place on -13 (197). His compatriot Leonardo Rigamonti and fellow amateur player played a solid round with five birdies and one bogey to tie for second.
In joint fourth place on -12 (198) were Victor Garcia Broto, yesterday’s runner-up and the French player Romain Vallaeys. The Spaniard had a fault-free round, but two birdies proved insufficient. Vallaeys topped the leader board at one stage lying -13 at the fifteenth tee. Unfortunately, despite a birdie on the last hole, the two bogeys on sixteen and seventeen sealed the deal.
With a brace of victories in his bag, Hidalgo now leads the Order of Merit with 20,578 points. Jacopo Vecchi Fossa from Italy moves back to second place with 18,152 points and the Frenchman Pierre Pineau remains third on 11,897.
After two back-to-back competitions the players now have a bit of respite before heading to Spain for the Alps de Las Castillas from 7th to 9th July at the Club de Golf Las Pinaillas.
Final Results: click here
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