Ireland’s James Sugrue sits atop a packed leaderboard after the first round at the 2024 Memorial Giorgio Bordoni presented by AON, following a bogey-free 6 under-par 64.
Tied for 2nd place only one stroke back are France’s Alexandre Daydou and Austria’s Lukas Lipold and there is a five-way tie for 4th place at 4-under-par that includes: France’s Xavier Poncelet and Benjamin Kedochim and Italy’s Mattia Comotti, Enrico Di Nitto and Gianmaria Rean Trinchero.
The first round began at 7:30 am local time from the 1st and 10th holes. For the majority of the day, players had favourable weather conditions with mostly sunny skies, some light winds, and temperatures around 23° Celsius. However, at 5:40 pm local time, play was suspended due to inclement weather in the area and then resumed 90 minutes later, and players were able to conclude the first round of the tournament.
Sugrue, in his third full season as a professional on the Alps Tour teed off on the 10th and made an eagle and two birdies on his front nine before adding two more birdies to conclude his day.
“I haven’t played a competitive round in about 9 months, so it’s good to be able to refresh, and I was really looking forward to this week,” said the Corkman.
“To be honest, even last night, I couldn’t wait for today to come. I was bogey-free today, and to be honest, I didn’t look like I was going to make a bogey today. Everything was good, my iron play probably stood out a little for the rest, but everything was sharp.”
Last night, there was some heavy rainfall over Golf Club La Pinetina which softened the course: “The overnight rain did soften out the course, but it was playing great. The greens were very true and brilliant to putt on,” added Sugrue.
The second round will begin again at 7:30 am local time from the 1st and 10th hole. Once Round 2 is completed, a cut will be made to the top 40 players and ties and Ireland’s Rob Moran and Marc Boucher both have some work to do as they are in tied 84th after round one on two-over par. Brandon St. John is on six-over with Paul McBride two shots further back on eight-over.
Scoring HERE
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