The top three in the Challenge Tour Rankings went head to head on the opening day of the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final, and there was very little separating the English duo of Tommy Fleetwood and Sam Little and Portugal’s Ricardo Santos after their duel in the sun.
In a thrilling battle, their three-ball produced no fewer than 15 birdies and just two bogeys, with Santos just edging the contest by signing for a flawless round of 66 to take a share of the lead alongside Jorge Campillo, Julien Guerrier and Andrea Pavan.
Little and Fleetwood, respectively first and second in the Rankings, both birdied the last hole at San Domenico Golf, on Puglia’s Adriatic coastline, to finish one shot off the pace on four under par.
As things stand, the €10,973 Little would earn for finishing in a share of fifth place would be good enough for him to retain his berth at the top of the Rankings, but with Santos in scintillating form and with Fleetwood having shown his pedigree courtesy of a tied fifth finish at the recent Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on The European Tour, the Londoner is taking nothing for granted.
He said: “It was a lot of fun out there. Tommy got off to a great start, but I just kept chipping away and played fairly solid in the end, even though I didn’t hole that many putts. We’ve both probably played better this year, but overall I’m pretty happy. We fed off each other a little bit and Ricardo also played very nicely, so it’s all still to play for.
“We can maybe afford to relax a bit more than the guys scrapping for 20th place, but we’re proud guys and we really want to win the Rankings. Any one of about five or six different players can still overtake me, so I’ve got to think about next year and finish as high as I possibly can. It would be great to win the Rankings, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Fleetwood would become the youngest Number One graduate in the history of the Challenge Tour if he were to round off his sensational season with victory, and the Southport starlet was keen to claim the bragging rights from his elder compatriot.
He said: “It was nice to stand on stand in the middle of the 15th fairway, and look back around 40 yards to where Ricardo and Sam had hit their drives. That was definitely the highlight of the day for me! It was actually a bit scrappy at times today, but I hit a great bunker shot on the 17th hole and then ended with a nice birdie at the last, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow now. I’m probably playing with Sam again, so hopefully I can edge ahead and put some pressure on him.”
