A serial finish at the Italian Open saw German Marcel Siem as the winner, who arrived in time to cut the red wire 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 Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin, who had been waiting for three hours. the day was over and instead of warming up he 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 it,” she admitted. Neither did his caddy, who had already started the return trip and was in a courtesy car on the way to the Bologna airport when they told her that there was a possibility of the playoff and that she had to turn around.
In fact, McKibbin had to give up the tournament at four in the afternoon. He had started the day six shots behind and, at that moment, the Frenchman Antoine Rozner, the protagonist on Saturday with a 62, had just birdied the penultimate par 5 of the Adriatic Golf Club Cervia, the 12th hole, and was in 13 under par, with three shots ahead of the British. He wasn’t blowing a gale either and even if the leader failed, the experience of Marcel Siem, 43 years old, 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 niquis also accumulated errors without remission. Another mistake from the Frenchman, he moved it away from the head at 16. And at 17, the most difficult hole on the course, Siem committed another bogey on a par 3 in which he did not even hit a green. With one shot 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 went all the way down the 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 off the lead, started with two consecutive errors and although he seemed to come back when he made two birdies (hole 6 and 7), he committed a double bogey that crushed any attempt at a comeback. After 74 strokes, three over par, he finished twenty-second.
