Staff WriterFilippo Celli took a matchstick to the leaderboard at the Dutch Futures on Saturday, torching The Dutch with a bogey-free, nine-under-par 62 to snatch the solo lead heading into the final round.
The 24-year-old Italian, who’s been threatening to break through all season, finally let the putter sing on moving day. Seven birdies, one eagle, zero dropped shots—Celli looked like he’d just remembered golf is supposed to be fun.
“I am happy because I played a solid round out there today,” said Celli, perhaps underselling the fact he turned in 30 strokes and closed with four birdies in his final five holes.
“Since the first round I’ve been solid but the first two rounds the putts didn’t drop. I was really good on the greens today.”
If Friday ended in frustration—with “two bad holes” gnawing at him overnight—Saturday was a clinical rebuttal. “This morning I woke up and told myself to be as aggressive as I can and it worked out really well,” he added.
Indeed, Celli came out swinging at The Dutch, and it wasn’t long before his playing partners realised they’d been cast as extras in his one-man show.
After two regulation pars, he made birdie-birdie on 3 and 4, dropped an eagle bomb on the par-five 6th, and picked up another red number at 7 to make the turn at six-under.
The back nine was more of the same: cool-headed, confident golf and another flourish at the finish, including a birdie on the gettable 18th.
Now nine-under for the tournament, Celli leads by a single shot over a four-man cavalry at eight-under: Americans Chase Hanna and Palmer Jackson, Belgian James Meyer de Beco, and Scotland’s Euan Walker—all capable of firing a Sunday low one of their own.
But this is Celli’s to lose. Sitting ninth in the Road to Mallorca Rankings thanks to three top-five finishes in his last four HotelPlanner Tour starts, the Rome native knows what this moment means—and what it could mean.
“Obviously all of us are trying to contend in the final round and I know that I am playing well at the moment so my previous results will help me tomorrow; I am pretty confident,” he said.
“It won’t be easy to replicate today and obviously the day after you have really high expectations, but I will try and be as patient as I possibly can be and see what happens tomorrow.”
Lurking just three shots back at six-under are Norwegian Alexander Settemsdal, Italian compatriot Renato Paratore, Frenchmen Felix Mory and Andoni Etchenique, and South African Daniel van Tonder—a group with plenty of firepower should the leaders stumble.
The final round of the Dutch Futures tees off at 7:32 am local time, with Celli in the final trio alongside Hanna and Meyer de Beco at noon sharp. One more lap of the kind of golf he played Saturday, and that long-awaited maiden win could finally have his name on it.
But this is the HotelPlanner Tour—Sunday’s never a stroll, especially not at The Dutch.
