South African Lee-Anne Pace and Italian Roberta Liti returned superb second rounds of five-under-par 67 in wet conditions at Golf Club Margara this morning to jump to the top of the leader board at the Ladies Italian Open presented by Regione Piemonte.
Pace leads by one in the clubhouse on eight-under-par, ahead of Liti, while Spain’s Nuria Iturrioz, England’s Meghan MacLaren and Italian amateur Alessandra Fanali all finished the morning session on five-under-par.
Pace, ranked sixth on the Race to Costa del Sol after winning the Investec South African Women’s Open title in April, said: “I hit it well off the tee and had a birdie chance on almost every hole, which was good. Yesterday, it played quite firm on the greens and you had to pitch it short but when the rain started, you could be a little bit more aggressive, especially on wedges. The greens slowed down a little bit.
“I think if you are long on the greens it can be quite tricky. There are a couple of pins where you’ve got to stay short, but otherwise its quite accessible.”
Pace made seven birdies and double bogeyed the par-4 eighth hole and she explained: “We were in between clubs and I took the aggressive one and hit it over the green and that was one of the ones where, if you’re downhill, you’re not in a good position, so I three-putted from a metre, because it was so fast.
“I think I’m playing the course well and driving the ball fantastically, which is key, but I’m also making some clutch putts, so I’m happy about that.”
Pace is reunited with caddie Andy Dearden this week and the last time they worked together, in 2014, they won the South African Women’s Open and the Blue Bay LPGA tournaments back-to-back, so she is feeling good vibes. On top of that, there are a large number of Pride flags embellished with her name, ‘Pace’ (which means ‘Peace’ in Italian) around the town of Asti, where she is staying this week, due to the national holiday, which feels to her like a special personal message of support.
While Pace has all the experience on her side, as the 2010 LET Order of Merit winner, with 12 professional victories to her name, including 10 on the LET, Liti is a relative newcomer who plies her trade on the Epson Tour in the United States.
However, Liti tied for seventh place in last year’s Ladies Italian Open at the same venue and the Sienna-born professional has the advantage of playing on home soil.
“It was a good round. I didn’t start strongly, with eight straight pars, but I made eagle on my ninth hole and I stuck to my strategy and it worked out,” said Liti, who graduated from Arizona State University in 2018, having won the National Championship in 2017 with Linnea Strom and Olivia Mehaffey. “I like the course; it fits nicely to my eye and I enjoy being at home. There’s a little pressure, but it’s about how you use the pressure. Sometimes pressure is good; it keeps you focussed and so it’s a little bit of both but I’m happy to be here and that usually works out well. Winning takes a little bit of luck too, so I’ll go out tomorrow and find out if it’s my week or not.”
