Molteni and Nouailhac lead La Pinetina Open

Italy’s Gregory Molteni (c) Agathe Séron

Italy’s Gregory Molteni and France’s Dominique Nouailhac share lead after opening round in La Pinetina Open Memorial Giorgio Bordoni. They both fired 63, seven under par to settle a one shot advantage over England’s Tom Shadbollt and Irishman Brian Casey.

The short and narrow course suit perfectly to those experimented players. Both Molteni, 32 year old and Nouailhac are former Challenge Tour players. The scored flawless round. Molteni already had his name on the wall of the club-house. He recorded the best score in 2012, six under par and improve it by one stroke today.

“I live 20 minutes from here but it is the last golf course where I practice because coming here, I have to cross 4 golf courses and 2 driving ranges! Honestly, I did not plan to play the Q school. I have just made some changes in my life, I am now leaving alone. So I want to settle up and I will play the tournaments left except Poitiers and I will see if I can finish in the top 5.

Lately my target was just to fix my life and then to restart. I played last week the Italian Open and I made the cut. And today, I beat the course record which was mine. I shot 63 and it was 64. I played very very well. This golf course fit me because I am very straight from the tees.”

This asset is Nouailhac’s as well. The 44 year old player is known to be very accurate and despite a hurting calf – he almost withdrawn – manage to climb on top of the leaderboard.

“It is a course that suit to my game. I am not a long hitter but I am very precise. I was playing well in June July. The summer break was a good thing but I was a bit afraid to resume the season after 5 weeks off. But I hit 11 fairways out of 13. I had 28 putts and I did not drop any shot, my short game was good as well. My target is always the top 5 and I am only one victory from entering it.”

The course was tamed as well by Tom Shadbolt and Brian Casey who shot 64, 6 under par. Shadbolt spent his summer practising with Trackman and he admitted it helped a lot to erase bad shots from his round.

Casey had a special training as he was one of the new face of the Irish TV program, The Speech. He has been doing interviews and speeches for days and he said that he felt much more confident on course thanks to this filming session.

Alps Tour leader, Italy’s Nino Bertasio shot 68, two under par and need to hole more putts to be in contention for a third title this season.

From La Pinetina
Agathe Séron