Niccolo Quintarelli arrives at this week’s D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge with some fond memories of his final round at Penati Golf Resort last year and he is hoping that he can make a breakthrough which will turnaround the fortunes of the Italian contingent on the Challenge Tour.
The 26 year old is playing his third full season on Europe’s top developmental tour having finished 37th in the Road to Oman Rankings last year.
A final round 66 at the inaugural edition of Slovakia’s first major professional golf event 12 months ago proved a catalyst for his best result of the 2014 campaign at the Swiss Challenge presented by Association Suisse de Golf the following week, finishing runner-up to Belgian Pierre Relecom.
Quintarelli is understandably excited about returning to the picturesque parkland course, which also hosts this year’s European Amateur Championship, and is hoping to get a result to kick-start his season.
“I really like the course,” said the Venetian. “I like the shape of it, I like the design of it and I feel very comfortable there. The only problem last year was that the greens were quite soft but it’s not easy because we didn’t have great weather. We had rain overnight a lot and thunderstorms.
I have very good memories from last year - because the course is comfortable for me I think I can play well
“It’s definitely a Championship course. The greens are huge and full of slopes so if you’re on the green on the wrong side it’s not an easy two putts.
“I have very good memories from the final round last year. I’m playing OK at the moment. I’m not scoring and I’m not playing how I really want to – sometimes I have been making bad mistakes – but because the course is comfortable for me I think I can play well.
“I had a good season last year but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the way I would have liked. I just had no energy by the end of the season, especially at Qualifying School Final Stage.
“I was playing as I’m playing now but I was more consistent which is the big difference, it sounds like nothing but it means a lot. You just have to be patient. Once you get yourself to the top of the leaderboard you get back those feeling where you have to go for it.”
Quintarelli is not the only Italian hoping to feel that adrenaline rush of chasing a title again. While Italians have historically been very successful on the Challenge Tour – Edoardo Molinari and Andrea Pavan won the Rankings in 2009 and 2013 respectively – 2014 was the first season in eight years which did not produce a graduate from the southern European nation.
This year has also been a struggle for the Italians with Lorenzo Gagli (24) the only one in the top 70, but Quintarelli thinks it is only a matter of time before they all start pushing each other on to great things.
“We are not having a good time right now if you look at the scores on the Challenge Tour and even on The European Tour,” he said.
“What I can say is that, because there are so many of us, we can do well at some point but maybe we have to change something. Maybe we are not focussing in the right way.
“I think it’s a case of one of us just getting a win. If we start playing well again we can all do it, especially at the end of the season which is the most important part, because we are all hitting the ball well. I think we can all do great eventually.
“We just have to be patient. It’s like a negative energy which eats away at you during the year, but if you see a friend playing well you are trying to follow close behind him. If you see guys struggling and at the dinner table they’re having a drink to just to try and forget their round, it’s not good.
“Hopefully next week we can turn that around, start to get some top tens and then hopefully one of us can get on a run and then I think we will all do well. We’re going from places like Scotland and Saint Omer to warmer countries now so tournaments like this is where it can happen for us.”
Last year's champion Andrew McCarthur will be an absentee in Penati as he instead competes on The European Tour in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
Hoping to take advantage of the Scot's absence is the winner of the other D+D REAL-sponsored event in Czech Republic earlier this season, Sweden’s Jens Fahrbring, while the winner of last week’s AEGEAN Airlines Challenge Tour by Hartl Resort Ricardo Gouveia is also present.
