Rohanna stays in contention with 4-over
Robert Rohanna shot a 4-over 75 Thursday in the opening round of the 83rd Abierto OSDE del Centro presented by FiberCorp in Cordoba, Argentina, but the Waynesburg native didn’t play himself out of the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica’s latest stop.
Rohanna is only one stroke off the top 50 heading into today’s second round. Cesar Agustin Costilla has sole possession of the first-round lead after carding a 5-under 66.
“I didn’t even play that bad, and I didn’t putt that bad, either,” Rohanna said via Facebook Messenger after his round. “It’s like the British Open out here, but no open holes to run the ball up into the green. You have to land it short and who knows what bounce you’re going to get. Then, if you land it by the pin, it goes over the green.”
Rohanna was even-par through six holes with four pars, a bogey-5 and a birdie-2. He bogeyed No. 7 and finished with two pars to go out in 1-over 36.
Rohanna had a rough start on the back nine, opening with bogey-4 and bogey-5. He recovered with six straight pars before closing with a bogey-5 to go out in 3-over 39.
“I was plugging along today and got to 18 at 3-over. I hit a good drive and had 130 in. I hit a good shot that somehow spun back. So, I landed five feet from the hole and it came back to the front of the green (to about 18 feet). I really felt good over my putt. It was downwind and I felt I was going to make it. I hit it a little hard with the wind and it went five feet past. Then, I proceeded to miss that,” explained Rohanna.
Rohanna feels the way he played was not reflected on his scorecard.
“Yes, it’s a difficult course. That 5-under (Costilla) shot is pretty awesome,” said Rohanna. “That’s why I’m bummed out about today. I hit it well enough to shoot a good score and it just didn’t go that way. I missed the fairways on all the par-5s, too. That made it hard to make birdies after that.
“It’s almost a stroke every time because the tree cover is so heavy it’s hard to advance it to a wedge distance. It’s even hard to hit a wedge close because of the firmness. The greens are tiny. I didn’t play the par-5s well and really couldn’t get it close to the hole all day.”
Rohanna plans to keep doing what’s his doing as he approaches today’s second round and the cut.
“I will probably play the course the same way,” said Rohanna. “Today’s round could have been four shots better, easily. Just some minor mistakes and you can’t really do that out here.”