Joseba Torres will be looking to replicate his success from last year when he tees it up at the 2026 Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France.
The young Spaniard had the best finish of his HotelPlanner Tour career at the 2025 edition of the tournament, losing out in a four-for-one play-off that saw David Horsey claim his third victory.
But Torres takes fond memories of the event, and his debut season, into this week.
“Last year was a good experience,” he said. “You need to play a lot of tournaments to get used to the environment, the people around you. It was a great experience to play on the HotelPlanner Tour.
“I don’t know, for some reason when I come to France, I play well. I don’t know if it’s the people, the golf courses, or what.
“Last year here, I had an amazing week everything worked out really nice, and I almost got the win on the play-off hole.
“It was very close but I have very good memories of it for sure.”
Four consecutive rounds in the 60s saw Torres to the 16 under total that secured his place in the play-off, before Horsey found a birdie two at the first time of asking.
And although he didn’t come out on the right side of it, it was an important experience for the 24-year-old.
“The play-off was beautiful,” he added. “I’ve never been in a professional event like that so close to winning before, and I thought I was going to be more nervous, but it was more like excitement of being there.
“It was like trying to make that putt to win the tournament when I was a child on the putting green.”
Despite his good early form, however, Torres struggled for the rest of the season, missing all his remaining cuts in the 2025 season.
But he is hoping, after his first top ten since Le Vaudreuil last year at last week’s Blot Play9, that he can push on this week.
“I was not playing good before that week last year,” the Spaniard added. ”Somehow, I played well, I don’t know how, but after that I didn’t manage to play good. There are a few things in the swing that I need to fix and I couldn’t in the tournament. It was a tough end of the season for sure.
“I wasn’t playing good as well this season. I talked with my coach and didn’t play the England week because I went back to Spain. We tried to make things more simple, and it worked really nice last week, I was hitting the ball really nice, having fun on the golf course.”
Torres will be hoping to find form in France again this week, and then push on in a way he wasn’t able to last season, as he looks to reach the Rolex Grand Final, supported by the R&A.
“My aim for the rest of the season is to keep playing well, keep it simple, and try and make the top 45 to make it to Mallorca. That’s the main goal, so just try to keep some positive ideas in the swing, positive vibes, and just keep playing well.”
Torres tees off at 8.30am local time on Thursday alongside Frenchman Aymeric Laussot and Englishman Alfie Plant.
