A serial finish at the Italian Open saw the German Marcel Siem as the winner, who arrived in time to cut the red cable when the tournament seemed to be gone. The 43-year-old veteran, who has only played four tournaments after undergoing hip surgery five months ago, made a seven-meter putt on the 18th hole to force a playoff against the Northern Irishman. Tom McKibbin, who had been waiting for the day to end for three hours and instead of warming up, was playing with his cell phone, after having shot 65 shots at the beginning of the morning.
McKibbin, while he was on the course, at no time did he think he would fight for the win. “No, I didn’t imagine it. I didn’t play thinking about that,” he acknowledged. Neither did his caddie, who had already begun the return trip and was in a courtesy car on the way to the Bologna airport when they told him that there was a possibility of the playoff and that he had to turn around.
In fact, McKibbin had to give up the tournament at four in the afternoon. He had started six shots behind on the day and at that moment, the Frenchman Antoine Rozner, protagonist on Saturday with a 62, had just birdied the penultimate par 5 of the Adriatic Golf Club Cervia , the 12th hole, and was at 13 under par, three strokes ahead of the British. There was no gale blowing either and even if the leader failed, Marcel Siem’s 43-year-old veteran, without going any further, had to count. There were many candidates.
But Rozner got dizzy when he saw the leader alone and he made a bogey and a double bogey, this one on the par 3 14th, in which he made three putts. And the German with the printed nickels also accumulated errors without remission. Another mistake from the Frenchman took him away from the lead at 16. And at 17, the most difficult hole on the course, Siem made another bogey on a par 3 in which he didn’t catch a single shot. green. With a shot from behind he had to take a risk and that putt came that gave him the opportunity to win.
In the playoff he hit a 9-iron to four meters of the birdie hole that entered the entire center. It is his sixth victory on the DP World Tour.
Among the Spaniards, Adri Arnaus was the best classified in the end. He shot 69, with four birdies and two bogeys, and finished in fifth position. Adrián Otaegui, who had started Sunday one shot from the head, started with two consecutive errors and although he seemed to come back when he linked two birdies (hole 6 and 7), he committed a double bogey that crushed any comeback attempt. After 74 strokes, three over par, he finished twenty-second.
