EDDIE Pepperell managed just five holes following a five-hour delay in the first round of the Italian Open at Monza..

Thunderstorms and torrential rain the morning meant that Abingdon’s European PGA Tour professional did not get onto the course until around 6pm.

Hardly surprisingly, after such a long wait, Pepperell, seeking to put a poor run of form behind him, dropped a shot at the par-five first hole.

However, he steadied the ship with four successive pars before bad light stopped play.

At one over par, he was eight shots behind the leader, Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg, who fired a 64.