Andrew McLardy will take a one shot lead into the third and final round of the Telecom Italia Open after the weather-affected tournament was finally cut to 54 holes.
The 33 year old South African carded an excellent second round 65 for a 14 under par total of 130 to lead England’s Nick Dougherty by a shot with Joakim Bäckström, Markus Brier and Alvaro Quiros sharing third on 12 under par 132.
Now McLardy, whose best European Tour finish came in this season’s Joburg Open where he finished second, will only face one further round in search of his maiden title after the decision was made by Tournament Officials to cut the event to 54 holes with the third round only being completed on Sunday.
It was an understandable outcome after a horrendous week of weather to the south of Milan played havoc with arrangements and gave The European Tour’s on-site meteorologist Craig Mroczka one of his most testing weeks on Tour for several seasons. Hour after hour had been lost to either the threat of thunder and lightning or the abundance of water on the golf course.
Wednesday’s Pro-Am was slashed to nine holes, almost nine hours fell by the wayside on Friday and almost three and a half hours were lost on Saturday in two separate interruptions, leaving Tournament Director José Maria Zamora with little option.
The Spaniard’s decision was backed by Donato di Ponziano, chairman of the Organising Committee of the Telecom Italia Open who said: “We totally agree with the decision made by The European Tour to stage the 2007 Telecom Italia Open over 54 holes and we fully support the position.
“The weather forecast presented to us for this afternoon and tomorrow is so volatile that our main concern, apart from guaranteeing the Telecom Italia Open the best winner possible in difficult circumstances, was also to maximise our exposure of this important international event to all concerned parties; including our sponsors and their clients, the worldwide television audience and all the spectators who will be here in person.
“We remember what happened in 2004 when we had to finish the tournament on Monday morning which was unsatisfactory to all parties and we wanted to avoid that eventuality occurring again.”
On that occasion, Graeme McDowell beat Thomas Levet in a play-off at Castello di Tolscinasco after only 54 holes had been played and Sunday’s action this year will mark the fourth Italian Open to have only completed three rounds, as well as the 27th in total since The European Tour was formed in 1972.
McLardy will have one eye on picking up the €283,330 (£193,163) first prize but admitted, the most stress he is feeling at the moment is caused by the birth of his first child, scheduled to be born by caesarean section on May 24.
“I think about it a lot, this isn’t really pressure compared to the baby coming and you just want it healthy with its hearing and eyesight and everything,” he said. “But so far all the scans have been good and we know it is a little girl.”
However, if he plays the way he did in the latter half of his second round he will have little to worry about, the Zimbabwean born player cruising home in spectacular six under par figures of 30 after birdies at the tenth, 11th, 12th 14th, 15th and 18th holes.
While McLardy will be keen to triumph for the first time, his nearest challenger Dougherty will be equally keen to bag his second European Tour title and end a run of what ‘might have beens’ he has suffered this season.
On numerous occasions the 24 year old – whose 25th birthday by a remarkable coincidence is on the day McLardy’s baby is due – has had a chance to follow up his 2005 success in Singapore, most notably in Singapore again where he finished fourth, and last week in the Open de Espana where he finished eighth.
“I have had plenty of opportunities to win this year and I just haven’t and so I am really going to try and not pay too much attention to what is going on out there, just going to focus on my own game and make a load of birdies and see what happens,” said Dougherty, who had eight birdies in a flawless 64 to move to 13 under par 131.
“I really believe that is what the great players do and that is what I have to do. I keep putting myself in position and I am just not finishing it off. I am not doing anything wrong but maybe I will try and get a little bit more enjoyment in going out and trying to play great golf out there and trying to make as many birdies as possible. Maybe that will be a better attitude than going out there trying to steal the trophy.”
Bäckström, Brier and Quiros shared third spot on 12 under par 132 after respective second rounds of 70, 69 and 67.
For Bäckström especially it was a bit of a comedown after his course record opening round of 62 but it was understandable in a way considering, given the vagaries of the draw and the delays of the week, it has been almost 48 hours since he signed for his ten under par effort on Thursday.
“I tried to go out there and do the same but I didn’t quite manage it. It was not a good day but not an awful score so it is all right,” he said.
“I think you start to compare rounds, that’s the problem, like today I was level through four holes where the other day I was four under par or something and you start to think you should be doing better than this. But you have to try and block out those thoughts and try and get on with it and hit every shot as good as you can and see what happens.”
