Elvira gets by with a little help from his friend

Nacho Elvira pointed to some words of advice and a new putter he received from the current Rankings leader Andrea Pavan as the main reasons behind his recent turnaround in fortunes.<br /><br />After signing for a second round of 68 the Spaniard goes into the weekend of the Foshan Open in third place on eight under par, just a shot off the lead held by the English duo of Tyrrell Hatton and Sam Walker.<br /><br />Elvira and Pavan became firm friends after sharing a house at Texas A&M University in the States, where the Italian was part of the first team All-American and was a member of the team which won the NCAA Championship.<br /><br />Frustrated by a failure to hole his fair share of putts in the early part of the season, Elvira turned to Pavan for help during the Mugello Tuscany Open.<br /><br />Since then, Elvira has recorded three top ten finishes in six appearances, and as a result has risen to 50th in the Rankings – meaning he only needs to climb a further five places to qualify for the season-ending Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final in a fortnight’s time.<br /><br />Elvira said: “The birdie on the last was the perfect finish to another very good day. I wasn’t really doing too much on the front nine but then something clicked on the back nine, and I started hitting the ball much better.<br /><br />“My recent results have been very pleasing, and I owe a lot of that to Andrea. He gave me a putting lesson in Italy and he also gave me a putter, which is really working well for me so I definitely owe him a drink or two. Seeing what he’s done this year has really inspired me, and it would be great if we could get onto the Tour together – although I’ve got a bit more work to do than him!”