Andrea

Pavan

The 32-year-old Italian has struggled the subsequent two seasons following his BMW win: Last year, he made just three cuts in 17 starts and this season he’s a dreadful 0-for-8. Pavan retired before finishing his first round in back-to-back events to start his season (Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Omega Dubai Desert Classic), and he’s posted just four sub-par rounds in six starts since. In his most recent start at the Made in HimmerLand, he rebounded from a woeful opening-round 87 with a slightly better 79. At the 2019 event, Pavan set the pace early with a first-round 66 before drifting down leaderboard after shooting 71-70. He started the final round four shots off the lead, but Pavan fired a flawless 66 to take the clubhouse lead and put himself in a playoff with England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick. Pavan won with a 2-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole.

The Italian arrives with eight straight missed cuts on his recent form log. Zooming out further, he’s gone 21 straight events without a top-25 finish. His last big finish was a T10 at the 2019 Italian Open when he was 66th in the Official World Golf Ranking. His year-long slump has dipped him to 222nd in the OWGR. The 31-year-old is losing a chunk of shots with his driver, currently losing 3.29 stokes off-the-tee per round (150th). On a positive note, Pavan has posted top 15s in two of his three appearances at Leopard Creek Country Club so perhaps this is a good venue to finally snap out of his slump.

That’s around a 13-hour flight and a five-hour time difference for those who took part at the WGC-HSBC where Pavan had to settle for T49. That followed a run of three straight top 12s and eight top 25s since his victory in June’s BMW International Open. Pavan is a healthy 27th on the Race to Dubai while his stats show him ranked 4th in Par 3s and 22nd in Birdies. That’s relevant as the Montgomerie Maxx has five Par 3s and scoring will need to be low. It’s his first start there after MC and T33 at Carya while he was also T7 in the second tier’s Turkish Airlines Challenge in 2016. While he didn’t make much of an impression in China last week, Pavan offers plenty of appeal in fields of this quality.

The Italian revealed in a European Tour blog this week: “This golf course is very special to me. I grew up very close to here, my parents still live close by, and I still know a lot of the staff and members. One of this week’s referees, Gaia Zonchello, even babysat for me. When the last Italian Open was here in 2002, I was 13 and I came as a fan. Whenever I’m home to see my parents I always come back to Olgiata to play. I also played a Challenge Tour event here in 2015 too. I’ve played it now in so many different conditions too, so I’m comfortable saying that I have home advantage this week!” It’s working out that way so far. Today, he outpaced bogeys at 11 and 8 with birdies at 10, 13, 14, 2, 6 and 9 to land three behind leader JB Hansen.

Pavan is 26th on the Race to Dubai thanks to a win at June’s BMW International Open in Germany and three further top tens since, including T10 in last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The Italian was flawless in his opening lap, picking up shots on all three par 5s. He also birdied 15 and 3 having started his day with a run of four pars from the 10th. Pavan was T21 in last year’s Open de Espana and came into this one ranked fifth in the betting at 18/1. He’s doing everything expected of him so far.

That’s worth T3 on the leaderboard with the afternoon session well underway and leaves the Italian three back from clubhouse pacesetter Matt Wallace. Pavan was solid enough over his first seven holes with six pars and a birdie at 4 but then swallowed double bogey-6 at the short par-4 8th. Three more pars kept him over par of the round walking to the 12th tee but a birdie there proved the catalyst and he added red numbers at 14 and 16 before a 3 at the par-5 closer which meant he played the par 5s in 4-under. Pavan won in Germany at the end of June and has form of 3-16-12 in his last three European Tour events. His past record here was poor though with two missed cuts, T52 last year and no sub-70 rounds. Today, his stats show some excellent work from tee to green as he piped 13 (of 14) fairways and hit 14 GIR.

At the start of the day’s play the Italian would have entertained very little hopes of a successful defense of his title and yet midway through the day it suddenly became a live option. Alas, in the end Thomas Pieters refused to budge and claimed a comfortable enough win, but this round adds to the impression that Pavan has taken a genuine step up in class since he claimed that win 12 months ago at Albatross Golf Club in Prague. He was sensational across the front nine, flashing red at the first, third, fifth, sixth and ninth. Suddenly his name was high on the leaderboard; could he maintain the momentum? Yes, was the emphatic answer. He made more birdies at the tenth, 12th and 15th holes. But with Pieters still clear he needed to push for more birdies and, doing so, he made an error at 17 which ended his hopes. But this is a week that will surely add to his reputation and confidence.

Both contenders made par 5s on their first return to 18 but after a buggy ride back to the tee to try again, Pavan grabbed victory thanks to a superb shot from the left rough to two feet, Fitzpatrick unable to match his kick-in birdie. The pair finished two in front of defending champion Matt Wallace, Alvaro Quiros, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Matthias Schwab, Edoardo Molinari, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and overnight leader Jordan Smith. Four back and tied ninth at start of play, Pavan moved to the turn in 32 with birdies at 1, 5, 6 and 9. After a run of pars, he added late circles at 16 and 18 to post a number which only Fitzpatrick could match. This victory is his second in less than 12 months following his two-shot victory at last Augusta’s Czech Masters with 22-under.

From top spot, Pavan now sits in a 7-way tie for fifth and trails new pacesetter Martin Kaymer by four shots. It was a test of patience today for the World No. 133. On his opening lap he’d flashed an eagle and five birdies but the magic disappeared Friday and he followed an opening bogey with 13 pars. Pavan finally broke the sequence with a red number at 15 and another at the par-3 17th at least ensured an under-par lap of Munchen Nord-Eichenried and kept him in the mix on a day when it could have gone wrong.

The Italian opened with a 69 in his only previous start at Munchen Nord-Eichenried in 2015 but missed the cut after a Friday 79. He also made an early exit at the Belgian Knockout on his last start but flashed some decent form prior to that with four finishes of T27 or better in five appearances, including a best of T15 at the British Masters. Today, he raced to the turn in just 31 blows after following his eagle at No. 11 with birdies at 12, 13 and 15. Coming home, he hit 7-under with successive red numbers at 5 and 6 but, somewhat disappointingly, took six swings at his final hole, the 9th, to reduce his lead over Wilson to the minimum margin. This is just the second time he’s broken 70 in round one this season (13th start) so hopefully he can cash in.