The European Challenge Tour returns after a week’s hiatus for the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge. We take a look at five things you need to know before the tournament gets under way at Vierumäki Resort from August 1-4, 2019.
Home hero
Last year, Kim Koivu became the first Finnish player to win the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge. The win was the second of a three victory season for the Helsinki native, and came in a play-off over Scotland’s rising star Robert MacIntyre.
Frenchman Antoine Rozner will look to replicate the Finn’s feat and earn automatic promotion onto the European Tour when he goes in search of his third win of the 2019 season this week.
Scandinavian Swing
Denmark’s Rasmus Højgaard, who alongside his twin brother Nicolai, has created waves in his first Challenge Tour season, will start the week as the highest-ranked Scandinavian player on the Challenge Tour Order of the Merit. The 18-year-old has already secured five top ten finishes this year and will be going in search of his first Challenge Tour win in Vierumäki this week.
Risk and reward
Just three weeks after grappling with the longest hole in Europe at the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge the players will have a very different challenge on their hands this week, with the return of one of the shortest four shot holes in professional golf, the 292-yard par four 13th.
At under 300 yards, most players will have their eye on driving the green, or at the very least, making birdie on this unconventional par four. However, the number 13 could prove to be unlucky for some as big numbers might add up quickly if the tee shot lacks precision.
Hill climbing
Calum Hill will return to action in Finland, one week after clinching his first win of the season at the Euram Bank Open in Austria. The triumph moved the Scotsman into the eighth position in the Challenge Tour Rankings as the race to secure the available 15 European Tour cards heats up at the midway point in the season.
Hill is one of ten players in the field this week who have triumphed on the Challenge Tour this season, with the Order of Merit leader, Antoine Rozner, headlining the field.
Finnish Challenge
This will be the 11th time Finland has welcomed the Challenge Tour and the fourth consecutive year that Vierumäki Resort will host the country’s showpiece golf tournament. The venue has produced plenty of drama over this time, including in 2018, when Koivu became the first home player to clinch the title. He was not the only Finnish player to show his class last year, with two other native sons, Antti Ahokas and Kalle Samooja, also finishing in the top ten.
