While the majority of the field struggled with gusting wind and rain, Carl Pettersson took advantage of the benign early morning conditions at Vale do Lobo to post an excellent six under par 66 and claim a healthy lead in the first round of the weather-affected Algarve Open de Portugal.
His 66 gave him a four shot lead at the end of the first round over five players who managed to battle through the elements to finish with 70, Emanuele Canonica of Italy, Bradley Dredge of Wales, Gary Evans and David Gilford of England, and Finland’s Mikko Ilonen.
The howling gusts off the Atlantic Ocean got so bad during the afternoon that they caused play to be suspended for two hours and five minutes as golf balls moved on greens, meaning the first round was not completed, 66 players still out on the course when darkness fell.
But Pettersson had none of those problems to cope with, completing his round dry and in relative calm. The 24 year old Swede has been consistency personified this season already, with eight cuts made out of eight, and moved smoothly towards his ninth with an assured display which featured seven birdies in total.
The one thing missing on Pettersson’s golfing CV is a win, his best performance coming in last year’s Open de Argentina where he finished second, while this year’s highlight came at the Emirates Golf Club where he finished third in the Dubai Desert Classic behind Ernie Els and Niclas Fasth.
But the former North Carolina State University student admitted he has no qualms about taking that extra step up onto the winners’ rostrum. “It is difficult to win but I think the way I’ve been playing it is a possibility,” he said. “I am playing to win that’s for sure.”
“You have to have a bit of luck to win a golf tournament but mainly it is just down to stringing four good rounds together. I tend to have three good ones and a 73 or something like that in there. If I can turn the 73 or 74 into a 70, then perhaps that might make the difference.
“But I love being in charge of a tournament or close to the lead. I tend to play better when I get some pressure on me. I sometimes get a little bored if I’m not doing well and I tend to concentrate a lot better if I’m playing well.”
There was nothing wrong with Pettersson’s concentration on the tough Anniversary Course at Vale do Lobo, made up of a combination of holes from the resort’s two courses, the Ocean and the Royal. Narrow fairways, small, undulating greens and the weather made scoring difficult for the majority but the Swede coped admirably.
Starting at the tenth hole, birdies at the 11th, 17th and 18th saw him to the ‘turn’ in 32 and when he birdied the second as well, he was in the lead on his own. His only bogey of the day at the third where he three putted stopped his momentum slightly, but it was only a blip. Three further birdies in the next four holes, the last one from 30 feet at the seventh, saw him out on his own.
Of the quartet in second place, the most adventurous time was endured by Gary Evans whose round featured six birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey six at the sixth where he was forced to take a penalty drop after finding trouble in a hazard.
“We got away with reasonable weather early on but then about the tenth or 11th it started raining,” he said. “It is that horrible type of rain too that just gets everywhere, every time you try and prepare for a shot it is a whole palaver. It was a very tough day at the office so I was really pleased to get through it with 70.”
