Matteo Delpodio takes halfway lead at the ALLIANZ Golf Open Toulouse Metropole
Matteo Delpodio of Italy, who currently ranks 85th in the European Challenge Tour Rankings, put himself in a position to improve his place in the standings by storming into the lead, at the ALLIANZ Golf Open Toulouse Metropole.
Delpodio got off to a perfect start on Thursday by carding a sparkling six-under par 65 in the opening round.
On day two, he was planning to make a quick start. Conversely, the spectators witnessed him make some early mistakes, two bogeys on the first four holes.
Yet, he did not allow the hiccups to overshadow his overall performance. He made a strong comeback with a couple of birdies on the sixth and eighth hole for an even-par score before the turn.
His performance on the back nine was even better, as he signed three birdies and an amazing eagle against a lone bogey for a four-under par 67.
He now holds a one-stroke lead over Joachim B Hansen and Simon Wakefield, entering the last two rounds.
The Italian has not won a single tournament on the European Challenge Tour so far in his career. Therefore, he now has a great chance to achieve that mark by maintaining consistency in his game on the weekend.
“It was a bad start, although I got an unlucky bounce on the fourth hole. But after that I played very well and hardly made any mistakes,” he said. “Things started happening and the eagle putt on the 14th was a big bonus. ... I hit two great shots into the
17th ...which was a very pleasing way to finish”.
According to Delpodio, the course conditions were really difficult to play on, because of the strong winds blowing in the area.
He stated that it was difficult for the players to make accurate judgments on how much force to apply on their drives off the tee.
“The wind made life much tougher today, because it always seemed to be across us, never behind us, so it wasn’t easy to judge distances,” said Delpodio, who turned professional in 2007. “But the forecast is looking much better for tomorrow, so I’m looking
forward to the weekend”.
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