Denmark’s Thomas Nørret is hoping to build on a fine performance last week when he tees it up in the inaugural Montecchia Golf Open presented by Polaroid.
The 39 year old finished third in the Challenge de Madrid in just his second appearance of the season and was delighted with his efforts at the start of what is a busy upcoming spell on the second tier.
“I stayed out of trouble all week,” said Nørret, who has one Challenge Tour victory to his name. “The first two rounds I had very few bogeys on the card. I had a few more at the weekend, but the conditions were very tricky.
“I had good control of the ball and I was very consistent. Obviously I was eight shots behind François (Calmels), but he played tremendously well and was a deserving winner. He played all the right shots and holed plenty of putts.
“But it’s very pleasing to be in contention early in the season and I was very happy with the way I played, particularly given that so far this year I haven’t had a chance to play much because the weather in Denmark has been so terrible. We’ve had snow up until about two weeks ago, so apart from a few weeks in Spain, I haven’t played a great deal.
“But I feel ready for the long stretch coming up and I’m really looking forward to getting going properly.”
Nørret remembers the last time the Challenge Tour visited Golf Club della Montecchia, near Venice, Italy, in 2002 for the PGA Triveneta Terme Euganeee International Open.
“I knew I recognised the name from somewhere when I saw it was this week’s course, but I didn’t realise I’d been here until I drove in through the gates,” he said. “Then I walked a few of the holes and it came back to me.
“I shot a 66 in one of the rounds here 11 years ago, so I obviously know how to play it well. The trees are a bit bigger these days and it’s wetter than I remember. It’s a challenging course and you really need to be straight off the tee.
“I’m hoping to pick up where I left off last week and have another good tournament here.”
Frenchman Calmels is in the field for the €160,000 event, as is Spaniard Jordia Pinto, who won last month’s Barclays Kenya Open.
The home challenge is strengthened by Andrea Pavan, who won twice on the Challenge Tour in 2011 before an unsuccessful debut season on The European Tour in 2012, and Marco Crespi, a Challenge Tour champion last year.
