Last week perhaps the worst thing possible happened: we correctly predicted the winner of the AEGEAN Airlines Challenge Tour by Hartl Resort, Ricardo Gouveia.
Emboldened by our success, we now confidently advise you to remortgage the house and put it all on these five players excelling at the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge!
Jens Fahrbring
Winner of this season’s previous D+D REAL-sponsored event, the Czech Challenge (see video below), Fahrbring comes to the Penati Golf Resort after a joint 12th place finish in last week’s AEGEAN Airlines Challenge Tour by Hartl Resort.
The 31 year old Swede currently lies sixth in the Road to Oman Rankings but is overdue a high finish, his only other top ten this season coming in The Barclays Kenyan Open, the year’s curtain-raiser.
Victory this week would leave Fahrbring just one more win away from securing automatic graduation to The European Tour, but a strong finish would also help bolster his hopes for a top 15 berth and a place in The 2016 Race to Dubai.
Mark F Haastrup
Could this be the week Haastrup re-enters the winner’s circle? The popular Dane won the Dubliner Challenge in 2008 before earning a European Tour card for 2010 and 2011.
His only outing this year was a missed cut in his home event, the Made in Denmark Challenge, in May, but we’re sticking to the old maxim of form being temporary and class permanent.
Plus the 31 year old has form round this course, shooting 12 under over the first two rounds last year before eventually finishing in a tie for seventh, and he could spring a surprise this week.
Florian Praegant
We’re not being deterred by his missed cut at this event last year and instead we are backing the Austrian to continue his improving recent form.
Rounds of 71, 69, 69 and 67 last week in Germany indicate that Praegant is comfortable with his game now and starting to score well as he finished in a tie for ninth place.
The 31 year old played on The European Tour in 2008 so he is unlikely to be overawed if in contention on Sunday afternoon, which we suspect he may well be.
Brandon Stone
The young South African is still clinging onto a place in the top 15 of the Road to Oman Rankings, currently sitting in 14th after missing his last two cuts.
Still just 22 years old, Stone is in his second full season on the Challenge Tour and last month was tied for eighth at the Najeti Open Presented by Neuflize OBC to back up his second place in the season-opening Barclays Kenyan Open.
And Stone clearly likes the Legend Course at the Penati Golf Resort, having finished tenth here last year, and another top ten finish could well be on the cards this week.
Christian Gloet
The Danish youngster is in his first full season on the Challenge Tour so may be relatively unknown to most fans, but he has already shown signs he might be on the verge of something special.
Most notably, he shot a 63 in the final round of last week’s AEGEAN Airlines Challenge Tour by Hartl Resort, tying the course record and showing he is in great form coming into this week.
That round helped him leap up the leaderboard to finish in a tie for fifth position, his best result as a professional, and we expect more of the same from the 25 year old in Slovakia.
