Gunner Wiebe will take a one-stroke lead into the weekend at the Italian Open presented by Regione Emilia-Romagna after carding a second round 69 at Adriatic Golf Club.
Related: Andrea Pavan shares early Italian Open lead
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The American started the second day in a three-way tie for the lead on seven under after his first round of 64 but had to remain patient after a level par front nine, with a bogey on the 17th cancelling out a gain on the 15th.
He made his second birdie of the day on the first hole, his tenth, and then birdied the par four fifth to move to two under on the day. The 35-year-old parred his final four holes to sign for a nine under par total after 36 holes, one stroke ahead of Germany’s Jannik de Bruyn.
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De Bruyn was a late entrant to this week’s event as he was initially set to take part in the European Challenge Tour’s La Vaudreuil Golf Challenge. The Q-School graduate is making the most of his opportunity this week, carding a second consecutive round of 67 to sit in second place.
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One stroke further back on seven under are last week’s KLM Open runner-up Marcus Kinhult, Denmark’s Sebastian Friedrichsen, Adrian Otaegui of Spain and South African Brandon Stone.
Canada’s Aaron Cockerill and Shubhankar Sharma of India share seventh on six under, while 14 golfers are tied for ninth place on five under par, including home favourites Edoardo Molinari and Andrea Pavan.
Player Quotes
Gunner Wiebe: “I don’t think any of us had the chance to play boring. The conditions were really tough. The course is starting to firm up quite a bit. You just have to pay attention. There’s not really a shot where you can – I don’t want to say mail it in – but you have to be on your mental side from the get-go with how tricky the wind was. Not near as boring, but tactical. Arguably, I might have played better today than yesterday. You can judge by score, sure, but I think the way I played today was a bit sharper.
“I think if you get off in the morning, some of the guys that have an earlier time tomorrow, with the wind down, there might some chances to get out and score. If the weather maintains and the wind stays up, I think you’ll see a pretty condensed leaderboard and probably a lot of guys who will have a chance. Whether it’s me or somebody else, someone is going to have to play very good the last two rounds to hold the trophy.”
Jannik de Bruyn: “It was less windy. Yesterday it was quite windy in the end. I enjoyed playing without wind this morning, so I took the chance there. It was completely different.
“(The game) was actually a bit worse than yesterday. Yesterday I was hitting the ball quite well, I hit many fairways, many greens. Today I struggled a bit with the long game, but the short game was even better. I made a few good pars in the end and that balanced it out.
“I got a call on Tuesday actually, I was in France at the Challenge Tour event and I got a call to say I was in the field here. I was just looking forward to it. It was a bit stressful. I only played nine holes in a practice round. I just enjoy teeing it up here every chance that I get, it’s nice.”
Marcus Kinhult: “I guess the statement (beware the injured golfer) is true. I guess I wasn’t ill enough today… but it’s getting better.
“A few times when I played on the Challenge Tour, it was a busy schedule and we played many, many weeks in a row. I would fly out on Wednesdays, walk the course and play it blind. Same this week, Laurie (Potter, caddie) did a good job with his prep. It has been good so far, I don’t think we’ve made any big errors in terms of strategy.”
