Bjorn Åkesson shares the second spot on day one of the ALLIANZ Open de Lyon
Bjorn Åkesson carded a five-under par 66 in the opening round of the ALLIANZ Open de Lyon, to tie for the second place on Thursday, October 4, 2012. The European Challenge Tour event is being played at Golf du Gouverneur.
Åkesson eyes a good finish to the tournament this week, in a bid to make it to the top-20 in the European Challenge Tour Rankings.
He is currently listed at the 35th place in the standings and he desperately needs a strong finish in, at least, one of the last four tournaments on the tour this year.
If he succeeds in making it to the top-20, he will be entitled to receive a full-time playing card for the 2013 European Tour season.
“I need to have some good finishes to climb the Rankings now,” he said. “My game is getting better and better, I'm coming back from an injury and I'm feeling better. If my putter is this good anything is possible”.
The Swede got off to a confident start on the back nine of the course, as he birdied the first hole that he played and followed that by three par putts.
However, a double bogey on the 14th hole was certainly a huge disappointment for Åkesson. Still, he did not lose his temperament and recovered with a couple of birdies on the very next two holes that he played.
He then lost another shot on the 18th hole to reach the turn with an even-par score. On the front nine of the course, he got off to a flying start by birdying each of the first four holes.
Thereafter, he kept on playing some good shots and managed to post a decent score in the end. At the end of his round, he was sharing the clubhouse lead with Daniel Gaunt.
However, his double bogey cost him an outright lead, at the end of the day, when Morten Orum Madsen surpassed him with a six-under par 65.
“The front nine was really up and down,” said the 23-year-old. “I started the back nine with four straight birdies. I just putted really well there, made a bad bogey at the sixth but had two birdies and finished with an up and down for par”.
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