Golf:Eighteen-year-old Matteo Manassero is the man — or rather boy — to catch after a course record-equalling start to the Andalucian Open at Aloha today. The young Italian star, still in with a chance of qualifying for next month's US Masters, fired an eight-under-par 64 for a three-stroke lead.
Joint second are ex-Ryder Cup Swede Niclas Fasth, English duo Anthony Wall and qualifying school graduate Lloyd Kennedy, South African Open champion Hennie Otto and Spain’s Eduardo de la Riva. Manassero is currently 63rd in the world and has this tournament and next week’s Hassan Trophy in Morocco to try to make it into the top 50 for Augusta.
He was there as British amateur champion two years ago, made the halfway cut and six months later became the European Tour’s youngest-ever winner. That came at Sergio Garcia’s home course in Castellon and being back on Spanish soil brought back memories.
“It’s quite similar, but a little bit more hilly,” Manassero said after matching the score of Lee Westwood en route to his winning of the same title in 2007. Seven of the par fours are under 400 yards and the teenager, who ranks 173rd out of 185 in driving distance on the circuit, added: “It’s a course that suits me and hopefully it will be my week. You have to put the ball in play and then do well around the greens. I did pretty much everything right apart from one shot.”
He bogeyed the seventh, his 16th, after a poor pitch, but already had seven birdies on his card and finished with two more.
Fasth, a member of Europe’s winning side at The Belfry a decade ago, had to fall back on his career earnings to keep his Tour card last year after slumping to 132nd on the money list. The 39-year-old, with only one top-three finish in the last four seasons, eagled the long 16th and had six birdies to reach six under, but finished with his third bogey.
Former Masters champion Mike Weir, over from Canada trying to reignite his career following elbow surgery, opened with a 68, while Abu Dhabi winner Robert Rock and tournament host Miguel Angel Jimenez returned 69s playing with Manassero.
Rock, conqueror of Tiger Woods in January, is another just outside the top 50 and winning on Sunday could virtually clinch an Augusta debut for him, while Manassero would still have to play well next week. Colin Montgomerie — Masters-bound as well, but only for television commentary work — is in a fight to survive the halfway cut after a 73.
Damien McGrane and Michael Hoey lead the Irish challenge on three under while Shane Lowry is two shots further back with Simon Thornton and Gareth Maybin on level par. Peter Lawrie had a day to forget, however, and lies 14nd in the 144-strong field after a six over round of 78.
Collated first round scores
(Gbr & Irl unless stated,
Irishin bold, par 72):
64Matteo Manassero (Ita)
67Anthony Wall, Hennie Otto (Rsa), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Eduardo De La Riva (Spa), Lloyd Kennedy
68Alex Haindl (Rsa), Mike Weir (Can), Tommy Fleetwood, Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Julien Quesne (Fra), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa)
69Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Damien McGrane, Marcel Siem (Ger), Phillip Price, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Robert Rock, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Mark Foster, Marcus Fraser (Aus), Michael Hoey
70David Horsey, Javi Colomo (Spa), Andrew Dodt (Aus), David Lynn, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Ignacio Elvira mijares (Spa), Simon Khan, Graeme Storm, Gary Boyd, Jordi Garcia (Spa), Andrea Pavan (Ita), Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Santiago Luna (Spa), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Pedro Oriol (Spa), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe)
71Andrew Johnston, Gary Orr, Oliver Wilson, Ricardo Santos (Por), Kenneth Ferrie, Oliver Fisher, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Shane Lowry,Alastair Forsyth, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Gregory Havret (Fra), Augustin Domingo (Spa), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Brett Rumford (Aus), David Drysdale, Borja Etchart (Spa)
72George Murray, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Richie Ramsay, Christian Nilsson (Swe), Gareth Maybin, Joost Luiten (Ned), Matthew Baldwin, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Romain Wattel (Fra), Knut Borsheim (Nor), Tano Goya (Arg), Reinier Saxton (Ned), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Simon Thornton
73Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Robert Coles, Soren Hansen (Den), Jorge Campillo (Spa), Scott Pinckney (USA), Warren Abery (Rsa), Wil Besseling (Ned), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Sam Little, Adrian Otaegui (Spa), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Manuel Quiros (Spa), Richard Bland, Colin Montgomerie, James Morrison, Carl Suneson (Spa), David Dixon, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Adrien Bernadet (Fra), Keith Horne (Rsa), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Richard Sterne (Rsa)
74Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), James Kingston (Rsa), Steven O'Hara, Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Daniel Denison, Marc Warren, Federico Colombo (Ita), Bradley Dredge, Steve Webster, Matthew Nixon, Edouard Dubois (Fra), Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Lee Slattery, Oscar Floren (Swe), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Andy Sullivan, Taco Remkes (Ned), Rich Beem (USA), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger)
75Christian Cevaer (Fra), Chris Wood, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Matthew Zions (Aus), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Danny Willett, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Stephen Gallacher, Jbe Kruger (Rsa), Markus Brier (Aut), Pablo Martin (Spa), Thomas Levet (Fra)
76Craig Lee, Thomas Norret (Den), Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Jamie Moul, Antonio Hortal (Spa), Richard McEvoy, Johan Edfors (Swe)
77Sam Hutsby, Peter Whiteford, Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa), Matthew Southgate
78Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Rhys Davies, Peter Lawrie
