It was a great day for Italy in the second round of the Air Mauritius Trophy on the Links course on Tuesday as players from the country moved into ascendancy in three of the six categories.
Luca Bolla (picture above) led the way with a sparkling performance in the Men’s Gross competition for handicaps 0 to 9.
Starting the day in second place behind former South African Test cricketer Shaun Pollock, the Italian accumulated 38 points to take over at the top of the leaderboard with a total of 72 following his 34 points at the Legend on Monday.
Pollock, who also plays off scratch, had a disappointing day, managing only 32 points to slip into third place, five points behind Bolla.
A bigger threat to the Italian has emerged in the form of Englishman Marcus Ferguson Jones , a plus-one player (picture below).
He followed up his opening 33 points in the first round, only a day after arriving on the island, with a much-improved 37 and lies two points off the lead.
It is another Italian, five-handicap Martino Scavini, who tops the Net section.
The joint leader after round one took his total to 73 points with a 37-point return at the Links.
Hot on his tail, though, is countryman Bolla, who is one point in arrears after his 38, while Frenchman Christophe Luna had the best score of the day, 41 points off a handicap of six, to take third place, a point behind Bolla.
Stephen Hurst, from England, appears to have matters under control in the Gross competition for handicaps 10-18.
He scored his second 24-point return to total 48 points, five more than nearest rival South African Andrew Rogers, who could manage only 19 points at the Links.
Englishman Derrick Bloy completes the leading trio on 41 points.
It is a different story in the Net section, where 17-handicap Rogers holds a two-point lead over Hurst (h12).
The gap has, however, been appreciably reduced after Rogers had gone into the second day with a five-point cushion.
The South African followed his 38-point opener on the Legend with 33 points on the Links, while Rogers added a 36 to his first round 33.
Fifteen-handicap Bloy is by no means out of contention, his second round 33 taking his total to 68 points, three points off the pace.
The third member of the Italian contingent to occupy pole position going into Saturday’s final round is one-handicap Giuliana Colavito, who is the narrow leader of the Ladies Gross competition.
Level with five-handicap Valerie Raffray, from Mauritius, on 32 points after day one, Colavito created a slender with her 34 points to Raffray’s 33.
With a 10-point gap to the third-placed player, this section appears to have developed into a showdown between the top two.
Raffray (picture above) also has an interest in the Net section, where she again sits in second place.
Marie-Yvonne Mamet (h18), also from Mauritius, has taken over in the lead, adding a 38 to the 37 points from the first round.
Raffray also returned a 38 and is a point behind Mamet, with Marguerite Kan Wah completing a Mauritian one-two-three a further two points back on 72.
All the qualifiers return to the Links course on Saturday for the final round.
Neil Webber
