Lee Slattery gets into contention at the BMW Italian Open presented by CartaSi
England’s Lee Slattery birdied three of the last four holes on Thursday, and stormed to the second place on the leaderboard, at the BMW Italian Open presented by CartaSi.
The European Tour event is being staged at Royal Park I Roveri, Turin, Italy, with a number of big names featured in the field.
Slattery started the 2012 edition of the BMW Italian Open in grand style, as he looked determined to prove his mettle this time.
Getting off to a decent start, the Englishman made birdies on each of the first two holes. He then parred the next three holes, prior to cheering the fans with another two birdies on the sixth and eighth hole.
He received a huge round of applause after he sank birdies on the 15th, 17th and 18th hole, making a strong charge later in the evening.
"It's a place I always play well for some reason,” said Slattery. “I think I've had two 65s round here before. Last week in Holland, although it's a great golf course, I tend to struggle on it, whereas this week I can see the shots. It's nice to open the
shoulders a little bit, which you can do here because the rough is not thick”.
He is now settled only one stroke behind the leader Joel Sjöholm, who recorded an impressive eight-under par 64.
Although Sjöholm faced battle-hardened rivals in Italy, he did not let his nerves rattle him, and recorded eight birdies without conceding a single bogey, to open up a one stroke lead.
“I know that I have to play better golf tomorrow; I'm not going to make these sort of birdies four rounds in a row,” he said.
In the meantime, Victor Dubuisson, Keith Horne, Garth Mulroy, Gareth Maybin, Richard Bland, David Howell and Richard McEvoy all recorded a six-under par 66 and shared the third spot on the leaderboard.
The golf commentators believe that the opening round results cannot be used as a yardstick. According to them, it is hard to predict how the top-listed players on the leaderboard will face their opponents in the remaining three rounds.
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