ELVIRA gets by with a little help from his friend
2013-10-18 20:06:54
Nacho Elvira pointed to some words of advice and a new putter he received from the current Rankings leader Andrea Pavan as the main reasons behind his recent turnaround in fortunes.
After signing for a second round of 68 the Spaniard goes into the weekend of the Foshan Open in third place on eight under par, just a shot off the lead held by the English duo of Tyrrell Hatton and Sam Walker.
Elvira and Pavan became firm friends after sharing a house at Texas A&M University in the States, where the Italian was part of the first team All-American and was a member of the team which won the NCAA Championship.
Frustrated by a failure to hole his fair share of putts in the early part of the season, Elvira turned to Pavan for help during the Mugello Tuscany Open.
Since then, Elvira has recorded three top ten finishes in six appearances, and as a result has risen to 50th in the Rankings – meaning he only needs to climb a further five places to qualify for the season-ending Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final in a fortnight’s time.
Elvira said: “The birdie on the last was the perfect finish to another very good day. I wasn’t really doing too much on the front nine but then something clicked on the back nine, and I started hitting the ball much better.
“My recent results have been very pleasing, and I owe a lot of that to Andrea. He gave me a putting lesson in Italy and he also gave me a putter, which is really working well for me so I definitely owe him a drink or two. Seeing what he’s done this year has really inspired me, and it would be great if we could get onto the Tour together – although I’ve got a bit more work to do than him!”
