10:35am Friday 3rd September 2010
By Tony Kelly
KING of the greens Simon Dyson posted a challenging opening day total as he bids to erase his Ryder Cup dismay.
The York-born golfer finished with a two-under-par 69 in the first round of the Omega European Masters, his first tournament after he narrowly missed out on making the European team for next month’s Ryder Cup showdown against the Americans at Celtic Manor.
Dyson, the world number 65 and presently soaring on a rich vein of form, went into today’s second round five shots shy of overnight leader Mattero Manassero, of Italy.
However, it was quite an up and down round by the 32-year-old at the course nestling in the shadows of the Swiss Alps.
The Malton & Norton Golf Club ace got off to flier birdying the par-five first, a feat he matched on the seventh.
There then followed his first bogey with a six on the 629-yard ninth hole.
Two holes later another birdie took him back to two-under before he bogeyed the very next hole, the 12th.
Dyson then reveled in a birdie double, picking up shots on the par-five holes at 14 and 15 to go three under and head towards a top-ten finish at the end of the first day. However, his form dipped again with a dropped shot on the 16th for his 69.
Manassero, 17, underlined his rich promise with a sparkling seven-under-par 64.
Playing his 13th European Tour event, but only his sixth as a professional, the Verona teenager led English duo Steve Webster and Robert Coles and Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat by two.
In the group three ahead, meanwhile, were Darren Clarke and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
A brilliant 13th in last year’s Open soon after he had become the youngest ever British amateur champion, Manassero joined the paid ranks after finishing 36th at The Masters in April.
That entitled him to seven invitations to try to earn enough – over £200,000 – to avoid this November’s qualifying school.
This is the sixth of those seven and while he has done well to make the cut in all the previous five and is over halfway towards his target, he probably needs a top-five finish either now or at the Dunhill Links Championship next month.
Manassero did not drop a stroke all day.
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