Nacho Elvira (-18) is going for victory in the Soudal Opentournament of DP World Tour that is being disputed this week in the Rinkven International Golf Club of Antwerpin B�lgica. The 37-year-old golfer from Santander took the lead in the standings, presenting his candidacy for the title with two sensational rounds of 64 strokes, both on Thursday and Friday. And today he has continued in the same dynamic, without taking his foot off the accelerator, to extend his margin over his pursuers to four strokes.
No tard� Nacho in making things clear on this day of the movement in the forest of Antwerp. With three birdies in a row in the first three holes he managed to open a small gap in the table. And with one more birdie on the par four 8th, he closed the first half of his round at four under par on the day, with a rate of successes that not even the Englishman Ross Fisher (-14) nor the French Romain Langasque (-14) were able to hold out. Great Spanish golf at least until the 11th hole.
On the 13th, after a couple of errors off the tee in his two previous flags from which he managed to escape unscathed, he committed his first bogey of the tournament, failing on his approach shot from the fairway and failing to make the first time you get your ball onto the green from the tall grass. But his reaction was immediate with a great shot on his second shot at 14 to give himself a birdie putt of a couple of meters that he did not forgive. Nor did he miss the last par five of the course, the 17th, for his sixth and last birdie of Saturday.
Unfortunately, on his last flag of the day, he went completely to the right with his drive off the tee, into an area of trees, with no option to find the green with his second shot. His recovery attempt, with his ball stuck to a branch, went into the rough after some damage to his wrist, apparently nothing serious. And after a good chip, he left a putt of just over two meters to save the par he didn’t make. In the end, 67 shots that, yes, allow him to face the last day of competition in the tournament with a comfortable advantage over the quartet formed by the Dane Niklas Norgaard (-14), English Joe Dean (-14) and the mentioned Fisher y Langasque.
Nacho Elvira, for his second victory in the DP World Tour
Elvira He will seek his second victory on the circuit tomorrow after the one he achieved in 2021 in the Cazoo Open of Gareth Bale in Gales. There he needed a playoff, going out to play the last round with a six-stroke lead, even more than now. So, with the lesson learned, he hopes not to have to suffer so much this Sunday, to do his homework quickly and also look, why not, at the fight for a place in the Olympic Games of this summer. Right now Jon Rahm y David Puig They would be the Spanish representatives in Par�sbut so much Nachoif I managed to win tomorrow, like Jorge Campillo, Adrian Otaegui o Pablo Larraz�bal They dream of this same objective that will be defined at the conclusion of the US Open.
Sebasti�n Garc�a Rodr�guez (-12), the second best-ranked Spaniard in this Soudal Open After 54 holes, he shares the 7th position after delivering a score of 67 today. Pablo Larraz�bal (-10) is 18� tied, �ngel Hidalgo (–9) is tied for 23rd place, while Adrian Otaegui (-8) is 29�. Behind them are the other three Spaniards who made the cut: Santi Tarrio (-7), tied for 37th place, Manuel Elvira (-4), 57� equaled, and Rafa Cabrera Bello (-3), sharing the 63rd position.
