After an absence of three years the EMC Golf Challenge Open 2014 returns to the European Challenge Tour schedule for a fifth instalment this week as home favourite Matteo Delpodio looks to kick start a big finish to the season.
Hailing from the same golf club as the Molinari brothers in Turin, the 29 year old counts the older of the two – Edoardo – as a great influence on his career over the previous few campaigns, having experienced life in The Race to Dubai for the first time in 2013.
Delpodio failed to keep his card during a first sojourn at the top of the game 12 months ago, finishing 143rd in the season-long list, but he has been in solid form so far on the second tier en route to two top ten finishes.
The first of those came at the Fred Olsen Challenge de España where he finished in a tie for third on the island of La Gomera, and he returns to his homeland this week fresh off a share of ninth in the biggest event of the season so far, the Kazakhstan Open.
He therefore heads to Olgiata in the Italian capital in good form and excited to try and pick up a maiden Challenge Tour title, as well as a first victory in Italy.
“I played well in Kazakhstan to finish in the top ten,” said the 29 year old. “I was happy, but I could have done some things better, like in any week. It was the biggest tournament of the season, and so one shot less costs you a lot of money, but I am happy about my game and am looking forward to playing this week in Rome.
“I’ve heard the golf course is in really good shape and that they have made a couple of changes over the last few years, and by all accounts it is going to be very difficult. You will need a very solid game from tee to green as a result, as they have made it longer and the fairways tighter, so everything will be a challenge.
“It is a very fair course, and if you play well you can score well, which is good. Sometimes you don’t always have to play that well to score well. I’m playing good at the moment though, so I am looking forward to a good week. I’m 34th on the Ranking so I need a good event to move up, and I’ve never won in Italy, so you never know.
“It is tough because you need to finish top five to get some really good movement in the Rankings, and the guys are good, that’s the truth. The scoring is low, in Kazakhstan the winning score was 19 under, and you need to play well and go under par every day. There are not many secrets to it – just play well, hit greens, make putts, go low and that’s it.
“I’m feeling good though and I’m playing well. I’ve been putting in some good work with my coach Massimo Scarpa the last month or so, and since then I am getting better every week, so I am confident about my game. You never know though, you have to be patient, and just find your week.”
Delpodio is part of a 20 strong Italian challenge some 30 kilometres north of Rome, with the likes of Alessandro Tadini (28th), Niccolo Quintarelli (29th), Filippo Bergamaschi (48th) and Lorenzo Gagli (51st) all in position on the Challenge Tour Rankings to contend for a place in the all-important top 15 with a strong finish to the season.
They are joined at the final event of the season to be staged on European soil by nine of this season’s tournament victors, the most high-profile of which is Benjamin Hebert, who is still in search of a third victory of the season that would ensure him of an automatic return to The European Tour if he were to achieve the feat for the second time in his career.
In 2001 he won three titles in quick succession to do just that, and having struggled in the years hence, his victories in Norway and France have given him the opportunity once again to fast track his graduation.
Mark Tullo won his first title in four years at the VACON OPEN last month and is subsequently in a good position to return to The Race to Dubai next season at seventh place on the Rankings, thanks also to two consecutive top ten finishes in his last couple of starts.
Matthew Fitzpatrick is in the field again this week as he tees it up for the sixth time on the Challenge Tour this season off the back of an eighth place finish in Kazakhstan, which matched the former US Amateur Champion's best of the campaign.
Sweden’s Pelle Edberg also returns to the venue where he lost a play-off to Sam Little the last time the tournament was played in 2011, and he will hope to rediscover that form as he looks to move up from 49th on the Rankings.
