England’s Stuart Davis leads the way at the European Challenge Tour’s Tessali-Metaponto Open di Puglia e Basilicata after a sparkling seven under par 65 at rain-soaked Metaponto Golf Club handed him a one stroke lead over his countryman Lee S James and the Welshman Kyron Sullivan.
Davis’s second round, which helped him to an 11 under 132 aggregate, was all the more remarkable, given that he played all 18 holes of his round in such wet and awkward conditions.
Indeed, the rainfall was so affecting that the third round of the Tessali-Metaponto Open di Puglia e Basilicata will be played at Metaponto as opposed to Tessali, due to the latter course taking too much water during the second round. That decision was reached after consultation between the Tournament Committee and The European Challenge Tour at the conclusion of the second round.
Tournament Director Paul Carrigill explained the situation further. He said: “Due to the amount of rainfall during the second round, and taking into consideration the adverse weather forecast in the Tessali area, we were left with no choice but to move the third round to the Metaponto Golf Club.
“This decision was based on the fact that we struggled to complete the second round over Tessali as the course was beginning to flood, while Metaponto has not been as badly affected by the water. A decision on where the fourth and final round will be played will be taken on Saturday.”
Davis, for one, is not bothered where the tournament is played – so long as he gets the opportunity to continue his excellent form as he pursues a maiden Challenge Tour victory. The 32 year old came as close as you can to victory last season when he lost a sudden-death play-off to Scotland’s David Patrick at the Skandia PGA Open, and he is hoping to go one better this weekend.
But he will meet the usual strong resistance from a hungry chasing pack that includes 2002 Challenge Tour Number One James and the 2006 Estoril Challenge champion Sullivan – as well as Englishman James Heath and Frenchman Julien Foret, who matched Davis’s 65 during round two to join Heath on nine under par.
Davis said: “I played great today and I am just swinging the club great at the moment. I have been doing that for a while but nit getting the results, but this week I have managed to free up my putting stroke quite a bit, and that has been the main difference.
“It is something I didn’t realise I was doing, but I was maybe getting a bit too tense with the putter. Now that I have noticed it I have been a lot more relaxed over putts and I’m trying not to think about them too much, which seems to have freed everything up and is working well."
