Andrea Pavan in three-way tie for lead at home

Andrea Pavan carded a flawless 7-under 64 to take a share of the lead at the Italian Open on Thursday.

“Today was good, I played very well. I was in position and hit it close,” said the Italian.

“The course isn’t very long but you still have to play well. Very small greens, especially on the back nine. If you hit the green you’re quite close most of the time.

“There’s a bit of rough around the greens and a few trees off the tee. It’s the type of golf course where if you play well it feels like you can shoot a low score, but if you’re a little off it can still bite.”

American Gunner Wiebe also stayed bogey-free for his share of the lead alongside Denmark’s Sebastian Friedrichsen who bogeyed the par-4 13th.

“It started out a bit scrappy, I missed a couple of greens early. But I made two nice up and downs, so I settled in,” said Wiebe.

“Then from there it was pretty boring. I hit a ton of fairways and a ton of greens. I had two hot stretches. I birdied four in a row on the front and three out of my last four on the back.

“It was probably better than it felt, but boring is good for me.”

Malaysia’s Gavin Green and Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult are tied in fourth place after both made bogey-free 6-under 64s.

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