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Pablo Martin Strikes AgainByMulligan Stu
Posted on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 05:49:54 PM EDT

But can he do it for more than one round - that is the question.

Martin is the young Spaniard who, last year, while a sophomore on the Oklahoma State University golf team, won the European Tour's Portuguese Open. He was the first amateur in the history of the Euro Tour to win.

He turned pro after his collegiate season ended and is playing the European Tour as a rookie in 2008. So far, not so hot.

In six starts this year on the Euro Tour, Martin has missed four cuts. He finished 25th and 66th in the events where he did make the cut. But he failed to go lower than 70 in any round of any of those six tournaments.

Which brings us back to the Portuguese Open, because the European Tour is back to the Portuguese Open. And Pablo Martin is back to the golfer we saw here last year.

Martin opened his title defense today with a course-record 63. Unfortunately for Pablo, so did Gregory Bourdy. So Martin doesn't even have a lead. But he does have a seven-shot head start over any other tournament he's played this year.