José-Filipe Lima scores well despite suffering from a back injury
José-Filipe Lima carded an impressive five-under par 66 in the opening round of the ALLIANZ Open de Lyon, to share the second position, on Thursday, October 4, 2012.
Bjorn Åkesson, Baptiste Chapellan, Daniel Gaunt and Eddie Pepperell were the other four players who carded same scores to join him on the leaderboard.
It was not his score that made the headlines. In fact, it was his performance, despite suffering from a recurring back injury that mattered the most.
According to the Portuguese, he kept on fighting with the pain throughout the opening round. Still, he managed to record seven birdies against two bogeys to settle one stroke behind the leader Morten Orum Madsen.
The highlight of his performance includes a run of four straight birdies, starting from the eighth hole. At the end of the round, he told that he was almost going to pull out himself from the tournament.
However, when he saw himself going in the right direction, he decided to keep on playing until he finds himself in a real difficulty.
“It was a good round but a strange one,” said Lima, who won the 2004 Saint Omer Open. “I was thinking of going home this morning, my back was really bad, but the physio stretched me out a little and I hit some balls and it was OK and then I felt good on
the course”.
He added, “I was hardly thinking about the shots, just wanted to hit it straight and get through it but it’s funny because I played to about seven or eight under out there, just missed a couple of putts, so it’s very strange”.
At the end of the round, he admitted that he himself was amazed to see such a good score on his scorecard. He told that he was not able to explain his performance in words.
Apart from that, he also was not sure whether he will be able to complete his four rounds in the tournament.
For the most part, he was concerned about avoiding the same type of injury that sidelined him for around three months last year.
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