Joachim B Hansen is hoping to complete some unfinished business this week at the rescheduled Madeira Islands Open – Portugal – BPI, having led the field after the opening round back in March before the tournament suffered cancellation due to weather conditions.
The Dane carded a four under par opening round back in March in what was the only round played before the event was eventually abandoned after an unfortunate week of weather at the mountain-top venue.
Now, on the back of some impressive form on the Challenge Tour, Hansen is hoping that he can take the positives from that ill-fated week earlier in the year and mount a title challenge at Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra.
This is a big tournament for us on the Challenge Tour and I’ve got a lot of confidence coming into this week
“It’s a nice place to come here,” said the 24 year old. “There are still some clouds going over and it’s a bit windy up here but you try not to think about the weather and just get on with it.
“It’s always good to come to a tournament where you know how to play the golf course and this is a big tournament for us on the Challenge Tour so I’ve got a lot of confidence coming into this week.
“It was so windy in that first round back in March, you were just trying to keep the ball in play. There are so many slopes on the course and the wind is always swirling in many directions so you will always miss shots long or short, right or left.
“When it’s that tough you’ve just got to make a lot of pars and try and give yourself some birdie chances at some point.
“I think there are a lot of good holes out there. It’s not easy to make good golf holes going uphill but they’ve done a good job with this place.”
The stunning Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra
Hansen stormed through Europe’s top developmental tour back in 2012 in marvellous fashion and came close to topping the Road to Oman Rankings when he faced off with Espen Kofstad at the Grand Final in Italy, but he lost out to the Norwegian and finished fourth in the year-long list.
Now, he feels he is close to returning to that form and with three top tens in his last five starts, he is hoping everything can come together this week.
“I’ve been playing well recently but I’m just missing something to really kick on,” said the three-time runner up on the Challenge Tour. “I hope that can come this week.
“I haven’t played great golf yet this year but hopefully it will come soon. It would be great to get a good result here, I would love that.”
If Hansen were to win, he would be the first Danish champion of the long-running event – playing its 23rd edition this week – and there are four former winners in the field, including former Ryder Cup player Jarmo Sandelin and home hero Ricardo Santos, who won the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award in 2012 on the back of victory here.
Argentinian pair Daniel Vancsik and Estanislao Goya complete the quartet of players whose names adorn the trophy, while Scott Henry will be hoping to go open better than last year when the Scot was defeated in a play-off by Englishman Daniel Brooks.
