Connelly shoots 72, Molinari in contention at his Italian Open

European Tour Italian Open leaderboard http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2017/tournamentid=2017084/leaderboard/index.html#/leaderboard

Austin Connelly has had a great week so far in Milan, opening with 68 65 but has slipped out of contention today with a +1 72 T34 at -8

His round began brightly with 3 straight birdies after an early bogey to go out in 34 however on a day when the leaders were shooting scores in the mid 60's he made 3 bogey 5's on his back nine, all the rest pars for the 72.

Matt Wallace from England continues to shine, 64 65 and -4 67 today for a 2 shot lead at -17.

However the crowds are all showing up to see hometown favourite Francesco Molinari who has posted a bogey free 66 and he is T2 at -15, and is the big story going into Sunday.

Another storyline is Tyrrell Hatton who won in style at St Andrews last week and has just posted a 65 to T2 as he goes for back to back wins. I must say he has been a very grumpy little guy this week considering his current situation, some guys just are very hard  to please !! Looking at his demeanour you'd think he was dead last.

Remember the purse here is huge, US7,000,000 is a testament to the work behind the scenes done by CEO Keith Pelley who has convinced Rolex to step up their involvement with this 8 event series culminating in the US $8,000,000 Race to Dubai finale in the UAE, along with the US$10,000,000 bonus pool.

Keith knows he has to increase prize money to be competitive with the PGA Tour if he wants to keep his stars as full time members of the European Tour.

In all honesty Tiger is in transition to whatever he wants to spend the rest of his life doing, but his legacy, including the huge purses today's players are vying for has never seen the pro game in better shape financially.

Bryan Angus