Grammatica and Senior aim for maiden win

England’s Jack Senior (picture) and Italy’s Alessandro Grammatica lead the congested leaderboard at Samanah Open. The Nicklaus Design golf course near Marrakesh was a terrible opponent to players today. Leaders are -4 total with a very single shot advantage. Spain’s Jesus Legarrea is -3 after signing for 71, one of the few scores under par today. France’s rookie Sebastien fired a astonishing 66 to tie 4th place with last week runner up Italian Matteo Delpodio, England’s Steven Brown and Spain’s Javier De Lope.

Today was a story of numbers. Bad ones and good ones but obviously maths explain well the past round. First of all, players teed off with 15 minutes delay due to frost on fairways. It was cold in the morning and the north wind started to blow to increase the freezing atmosphere. The best score of the morning was registered by France’s Christophe Brazillier with a 70-2-under-card. Meanwhile with a solid 71, Italian Alessandro Grammatica took the lead with -4.

The scores were better in the afternoon and speaking of numbers, France’s Sebastien Gros said : “It was more than a great day. I hit my driver really well so the ball rolled on the fairway and the biggest iron I hit on a par 4 was a 8 iron. Then I hit 15 greens but I only missed one for good as I was in the bunker on the first. But I saved par. My Moroccan caddy and I found a good way to read the greens and I holed good putts for birdy. Last week, the last day was really hard to me. I was on the podium with less than 9 holes to play and I blew up. I have a job to learn and to do this kind of mistake in the beginning is helpful to go forward quicker. I really felt a different pressure than on amateur event. I have to deal with it.” Sebastien Gros is the only player out of 95 not to have dropped any shot during his round.

Grammatica as well as Senior will play for maiden win. Delpodio and Legerrea, who did already share their last round last week will for sure chase the leaders and so will rookies Gros and Brown. The ending of the story is not written.

By Agathe Séron