He’s enjoyed relative success in past editions of the KPMG Trophy and Joel Sjöholm believes his good record is due to similarities between Belgian courses and those in his homeland of Sweden.
The 33 year old finished tied fourth on his return to the tournament last year following his previous result of tied 28th, in 2010.
He was 21 under par in three rounds at Royal Waterloo Golf Club last season, but a five over par 77 on Day Two meant he was fighting a losing battle and had to settle for joint fourth.
But as he prepares to tee it up at L’Empereur Golf and Country Club this week, the Swede has explained why he enjoys playing in Belgium.
“I love to play golf in this country,” Sjoholm said. “I think they make quite similar golf courses to Sweden and the set-up is quite similar so when you’ve grown up on comparable courses you find that your eyes actually fancy it from the start.
“It’s a different golf course to last year and that’s what bothers me the most. Sometimes I’m a little bit stupid and I didn’t check what course we were playing so I was feeling quite confident coming down and playing Waterloo, the one we played last year, because I had such good vibes from it.”
The 2017 Italian Challenge Open by Lyoness winner put in a solid display in Switzerland last week, finishing in a tie for 41stafter four rounds of level par or better, and he believes he will need to approach the L’Empereur course in a similar fashion to last week.
“Last week was quite a demanding golf course off the tee box, in my opinion,” he said.
“That golf course was an amazing track but you have to be ready off the tee, and I wasn’t because the range was too short for us to practice driver, three wood or hybrid.
“The rest of my game was quite good and I thought it felt okay all week. I did everything quite well except for a few mistakes off the tee which cost too much. It’s going to be a fun week this week.
“I haven’t seen the course yet so I’m going to go out there and try and figure it out a little bit.
“The other guys have told me you have to be quite straight off the tee box again and there are a lot of holes that are a little bit blind so you have to make sure you have to hit your correct targets off the tee box.
“I think that will be the key this week, you have to play a little bit more strategically.”
Reflecting on his season so far, Sjöholm has mixed emotions when weighing up the pros and cons of his seven tournaments in 2018, which have yielded one top-ten finish, at the Challenge de España.
“It’s been quite poor I think,” he said. “I always expect a little bit too much from myself but I think that’s what we should do.
“At the same time, I’m feeling quite satisfied and it’s a little bit 50/50. Half of me says I’m on a good path and the other half says I could have done a little bit more in recent tournaments.”
