Scot Craig Lee is turning his season around after a ‘selfie’ disqualification in the recent Made In Denmark tournament.
Lee had the Tartan flag flying close to the top of the Monza mast with a five under par 67 on the the opening day of the 72nd Italian Open.
Craig Lee raises Tartan flag high over Monza course (Photo – www.golffile.ie)
He got a valuable first hole jump on his rivals in holing a 20-yard green-side bunker shot for an eagle and to be the only player to record a ‘3’ at the opening hole of the Milano Golf Club course.
However in a disappointing scenario for a second week running four all four rounds of a Race to Dubai event will be played under a ‘preferred lie’ fairways rule as was the case last week in Holland.
Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts threaded his way through the tight tree-lined lined course with a nine under par 63 that included eight birdies in succession from his fifth to 12th holes for a two shot leading cushion over a group of players including former champion and local hero, Francesco Molinari.
After eagling the first, Lee was level par for the next dozen holes before picking up three birdies in succession from the 14th, and in a round that included just 27 putts.
“To start my round with an eagle was brilliant and I can’t remember the last time I did that,” he said.
“But then I didn’t think the scoring would that great over the four days given the condition of the course and some of the greens, so I am surprised to see nine under leading.”
Map of the Monza race circuit showing closeness of the golf course.
Lee arrived at Monza lying 112th on the Race to Dubai and needing to be inside the top-115 at year’s end to retain full Tour membership.
And while he posted a best of third earlier this year in South Africa it was after disqualifying himself from last month’s Made In Denmark event he’s repeated that form with back-to-back eight-place result in Prague and Moscow.
The Scot was five holes into is second round in Denmark then he realised he had not advised is playing partners he had played a provisional ball a hole earlier.
“Actually, the game started to come back around about the Scottish Open but then missed the cut by one in Switzerland and I was first reserve for Paul Lawrie’s event, so I was sort of the wrong side of things going right for me,” he said.
“Then we had that incident in Denmark but I then played great in the Czech Republic and the following week at the Russian Open.
“So I am pleased I am playing better as I am right on the bubble in terms of retaining my card as I would like to be a lot more comfortable at this time of the season than where I am.
“But I have three big events coming up at the end of the year including the Dunhill and the British Masters, so anything can happen.
“So it would be nice to get closer to the number I had in mind which is around 80th and if all goes well, I could be an outside chance for the Race to Dubai Finals.”
However are a spell of post round practice Lee was taking the short walk to the Monza circuit to inspect where Lewis Hamilton last fortnight won back-to-back Italian F1 GPs.
“You could hear some cars going around on Tuesday, so it would be nice to check out one of the more famous circuits in car racing,” he said.
