Two-time European Tour winner Guido Migliozzi recorded his first bogey-free round since the Turkish Airlines Open, in November, to lead the Oman Open after the first round.
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GUIDO Migliozzi fired a flawless round of 66 to rediscover his form and take the first round lead at the 2020 Oman Open.

The Italian has two European Tour wins from his stunning rookie year on the Race to Dubai last season.

But Migliozzi missed his first three cuts of the 2020 campaign and arrived at Al Mouj Golf without a bogey-free round since the Turkish Airlines Open in November.

The 23-year-old showed his class that week in Antalya as he achieved his first top 10 in a Rolex Series event.

And during round one in the desert he once again showed why he is a major rising star on the European Tour.

A delighted Migliozzi said: “It’s very good to start the tournament with a 66 and a bogey free round.

“It’s a good feeling to work my way into this beautiful course and tournament.

“Obviously, I will try to give my best over the week and for the rest of the year,” added the winner of the Magical Kenya Open and the Belgian Knockout.

“I think the whole course is good. It’s tricky because the greens are tough and tight and there are a lot of things which need your attention – like the wind and the release of the ball.

“You can play each hole in a few different styles and it’s really cool and all the players are really happy to play here,” added Guido Migliozzi.

“It’s a good feeling to be a European Tour winner already. I like to win, and I hope one day will come when I win again.”

Migliozzi’s six birdies moved him to six-under, one shot ahead of 18-year-old Dane Rasmus Højgaard, South Korean Taehee Lee and South Africa’s Brandon Stone.

Rasmus Højgaard – who won on his European Tour debut as a pro in his first start in Mauritius in December – said: “The conditions when I started out were a bit tricky.

“The wind was up a little bit so it was a bit of a battle but I got through it.

“This course is quite wide from the tee box, which is very nice, and I’m putting well.

“You have to have good speed on the greens out here because you’re going to be faced with some long putts. That was the key today.

“It might have come as a little surprise that I won so early on the European Tour, but I was playing well in my last year as an amateur – and I carried that confidence into the professional game.

“My goal this year is to be the Rookie of the Year and have multiple wins, so that’s what I’m chasing.”

Of course, last year’s winner in Oman was Kurt Kitayama who recorded his second win in his rookie season at Al Mouj – a feat matched last summer by Migliozzi.

Will that be a good portent for young Dane, whose twin brother Nicolai – another very promising prospect – is in the field in Oman?

Stone, who won his first Rolex Series event at the 2018 Scottish Open, said: “I’m always going to have a soft spot for this golf course.

“This is where I earned my playing rights from the Challenge Tour, so I have some history here and I played nicely here last year too.

“I love the course – it’s in my top five in the world, if I’m being honest, and every year coming back is an absolute pleasure.

“Last year was a fantastic year for me – even though the results weren’t there – because we put a lot of structure in place, physically and mentally.

“We did it to transform me as a person as well as a golfer, and I feel like the base work is there at the moment. My game feels fantastic and I’m feeling physically the best I ever have.

There is a group of eight players at four-under including former Ryder Cup players Victor Dubuisson, Ross Fisher, Stephen Gallacher and Andy Sullivan.

Joost Luiten – the 2018 champion – is in a group of 10 players at three -under, with five players returning to complete their finals holes on Friday morning due to darkness.

•For live scoring in the second round click here.

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Stoke Park’s Conor Gough won the McGregor Tophy at the 2018 English Boys U16 Amateur Open Championship, beating off Rotherham’s Ben Schmidt, who bcame the the first 16 year-old to win the Brabazon Trophy at the English Men’s Amateur Strokeplay, in May.
Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

KNOWN as The McGregor Trophy, the England Golf junior championship returns to its spiritual home at Radcliffe-on-Trent, in Nottinghamshire, next week.

So any spectators who attend over the three days from July 16-18 can expect to see players who will graduate to the European Tour – and most likely prove to be winners in waiting.

The likes of Jim Payne – one of only two players to have successfully defended the McGregor in 37 years – Steve Webster, Graeme Storm, Oliver Fisher and Paul Waring, who won the Nordea Masters in Sweden last summer, adorn the honours board at the club, which created the first national Under 16 event, and was adopted by the English Golf Union in 1993.

Two years later Rose, a member at North Hants, would claim The McGregor at Radcliffe-on-Trent – just days before the future US Open winner would become the only player to land the U16 and U18 titles in the same season by winning The Carris at Burnham & Berrow.

JUSTIN ROSE PLAYING IN THE 1993 McGREGOR TROPHY

As well as attracting the best young players from England many of the Continent’s top teenage talents head for these shores in July to test themselves in The McGregor, including the younger Molinari brother, who won in 1996.

Dutch golf had high hopes for Wouter de Vries when he won the trophy at Rotheram in 2003, while the likes of Middlesborough’s Michael Skelton, Ealing’s Yasin Ali and Combe Wood’s James Heath, all became leading English junior and men’s internationals after claiming the English U16 crown.

In more recent times, Goodwood’s Marco Penge claimed the title at Seacroft in the North East, in 2015, while Denmark’s Rasmus Hjogaard has graduated to the European Challenge Tour – along with his twin brother Nicolai – just three years after Rasmus’ win at Royal Ashdown Forest.

Denmark’s John Axelson won The McGregor in 2014 – one of seven of the 37 champions to come from Continental Europe

Denmark’s John Axelson who won in 2014 – the last time Radcliffe-on-Trent hosted The McGregor – was runner-up in the medal honours after the 36-hole strokeplay qualifier at The Amateur Championship, at Portmarnock, last month.

Last year’s champion – Stoke Park’s Conor Gough, who won at Kedleston Park, in Derbyshire – went on to become the 2018 Boys’ Amateur Champion, while runner-up Ben Schmidt, from Rotherham GC, became the youngest-ever Brabazon Trophy winner in 70 years, in May.

This year’s championship will feature players from 16 countries. Among those aiming to keep the trophy in English hands is Hagley’s Hugh Adams, from Worcestershire, who won the English U14s Reid Trophy last year.

Adams showed his strong nerves then, coming through a four-hole play-off to take the title at Reading GC.

Others likely to be in the mix are Dubai-based Josh Hill, who was in England’s winning team at the 2018 Boys’ Home Internationals and the U16 internationals Josh Berry, from Doncaster GC, Stoke Park’s Tom Gregory, and Welwyn Garden City’s Reis Suart – plus Royal Liverpool’s Matthew Dodd-Berry, who won the Midland U16 Championship earlier this year.

Among the international challengers will be players from the other home countries and many European nations, with Spain and Italy both sending large squads.

The championship returns every five years to Radcliffe-on-Trent, where it began in 1982, and was played for the first 17 years.

The McGregor Trophy is played over 72 holes. The full field plays 18 holes on each of the first two days with the leading 40 and ties qualifying for the final 36 holes on the last day.

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