(Provided by Tennis World USA)
For the third time in its history, the Netherlands Open, aka (for sponsor reasons) KLM Open, is held at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, North Brabant. With at least eight centuries of certain history, this place has a par 72 which, with its 6808 meters, will see the Frenchman Victor Perez defend his title from a year ago.
There have been, in the distant past, Italian successes: in 1954 Ugo Grappasonni prevailed in The Hague, while Alfonso Angelini, the following year, made him the Kennemer, in Zandvoort.
KLM Open 2023, schedule
Trying to repeat those glories, in 2023, will be four Italians.
In addition to Guido Migliozzi and Edoardo Molinari, whom we meet with the usual frequency (even if, in the Race to Dubai, the Vicenza-born is now 114th; the Turin-born is better, 80th), two important names are reviewed in a different way, those of Renato Paratore and Filippo Celli.
For one it is the beginning of a long series of tournaments in a row now that many (or all) of the problems have been solved, for the second there is a true certificate of esteem from the tournament in consideration of the future perspective.
Perez, however, is not only the winner of a year ago, but is also among the main candidates to do an encore. Although it remains to be understood how much he will be able to pay back from the States, he has the best result ever obtained in a Major in his hands, the twelfth place in the PGA Championship which ended on Sunday in Oak Hill.
The cases of encore in Holland are very rare, and often very ancient: Henry Burrows 1920-1921, Audrey Boomer 1924-1925-1926, Flory Van Donck 1936-1937, Sewsunker Sewgolun 1959-1960, Bob Byman 1977-1978. There are men who can, however, prevent it, starting with the Spaniards and the Pole Adrian Meronk.
Cromvoirt is a village located in the Dutch municipality of Vught, in the province of North Brabant. On January 1, 2017, the village had 825 inhabitants. Cromvoirt was an independent commune until January 1, 1933, when the commune was abolished and attached to Vught.
