PGA Golf - Ishikawa makes 66 and Matteo settles for 64 in Omega European Masters
Thursday was the first day for the Fujisankei Classic and the Omega European Masters, where Ishikawa shot a 66 and Matteo made a 64 respectively.
In the Omega European masters the Italians are making the news nowadays; first it was the Molinari brothers who made the headlines after claiming the wild card from the captain of the Ryder cup team, now it is a 17-year-old Matteo Manassero who is all set to follow the footsteps of his idol Edoardo Molinari.
Matteo took the lead in the first round of the European masters, which is taking place at the Crans-sur-Sierre Switzerland by carding a 64 with the help of seven birdies. The young chap is the winner of the British amateur championship, which took place last year. Moreover, he finished 13th in the open and 36th in the Masters of last season. According to the British media, the boy is a huge threat for the veterans contesting in this tournament. He sure is, as Matteo has plans of becoming the youngest winner at the European Tour so that he banks on enough money to go through the Qualifying school in November.
Moreover, he holds a record of making the cut in six events and if he finishes in the top five of the tournament’s leader-board he is allowed to skip the Q- School. As for his future plans, Matteo has got an invitation to the Dunhill Links Championship, which is taking place next month in Scotland. According to the player, he is very excited over his achievements and happy that he has been invited to another tournament this season. On the whole this will be his seventh invitation, which means so far it is a good start for the European tour.
When asked by the press about the Molinari brothers, he replied that they were a big inspiration for the player, as they too grew up in Italy. He further added that Edoardo was like an idol for him, and he watched his game last Sunday, when he won the Johnnie walker championship at the Gleneagles.
One of the Molinari brothers, Francesco is taking rest at home before attending the KLM championship. In his absence his sibling Edoardo posted a 66 in the first round of the European masters. He was shot away from the Englishman Graeme Storm and Finnish Finn Mikko Ilonen.
Storm and Ilonen are the former British amateur champions, and both have success in their bags at the European Tour. Storm was the winner of the French Open in 2007and after a gap of three years he is back with an opening round of one bogey and seven birdies. On the other hand, Ilonen holds record of victories in Indonesia and Sweden but here he missed a shot at the last hole of the back nine and joined the league of second place.
Coming to the next story of Thursday another Teenager Ryo Ishikawa shot a 66 in the first round of the Fujisankei Classic to claim the lead.
He started from the back nine of the Fujizakura Country Club and shot three birdies and one eagle in the first half and then picked up two more at the first and the fourth hole of the front nine. Although he faced trouble at the fifth and the seventh hole with a bogey and a double bogey but he countered them with birdie at the ninth hole.
Summing it up, Matteo Manassero shot a 64 and Ryo Ishikawa posted a 66 yesterday in their first rounds. Both the boys are energetic and full of enthusiasm, which means that not after a long time they will have their names written on Ryder Cup.
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