Thursday 7 August 2014 20:59, UK
Italy’s Edoardo Molinari felt he had not been at his best despite shooting a five-under-par 66 in the opening round of the US PGA Championship at Valhalla.
The 33-year-old started strongly with a birdie at the first hole and then stormed up the leaderboard with four successive birdies from the seventh.
A bogey at the 12th checked his charge but he responded by birdieing the 13th and then hit back from a bogey at the 16th with another birdie at the 18th.
Molinari’s fine round followed on from an excellent performance in The Open at Royal Liverpool where he finished in a tie for seventh place behind Rory McIlroy.
“It’s obviously very nice,” he told Sky Sports.
“I wasn’t playing too good the last few days but I spent some time with Sean Foley on the range and he definitely found something and today I hit the ball very well.
“I had a lot of birdies so the putting was working very nicely and I hit a lot of good iron shots. I had a lot of chances.
“My game obviously wasn’t as good as it has been in the last few months but it is nice to shoot five under and know there is something for improvement.
“It’s great to have such a good opening round because you don’t have to do any catching up. I just need to keep playing well and see what happens Sunday night.”
Looking back to The Open, he added: “It was my best show in a major ever. It is always nice to finish up there in a major championship and I had a lot of fun playing on Sunday in the third last group. It was something I will remember forever.”
