With the 2017 Road to Oman resuming at the Turkish Airlines Challenge next week, we’re taking a look at some of the talented hopefuls on this year’s European Challenge Tour. This time, on the back of Sergio Garcia’s memorable Masters Tournament victory, it’s the turn of one of his compatriots.
Scott Fernandez enters his second season as a professional hopeful of turning his undoubted potential and year’s worth of experience on the Challenge Tour into stronger results on this year’s Road to Oman.
The 24 year old finished 2016 in credit, making more cuts than he missed and finishing 71st in the Rankings – the final spot guaranteed full Challenge Tour status for this season.
The Spaniard toyed with following his ski instructor father onto the slopes before the lure of the fairways proved too strong and, after combining studies with golf at Iowa State University, he turned professional at the end of 2015.
Qualifying for last year’s Open Championship was another early-career highlight and now, with a year on the Challenge Tour under his belt and secure in the knowledge of plenty of playing opportunities, Fernandez is looking to improve on his two top ten finishes last term.
“It’s tough to make that transition from amateur to professional,” he said. “I learnt a lot last year, though the scores weren’t quite what I wanted, and I’m really looking forward to this year.
“I know some of the courses, I know how to travel now, I know how to organise myself going down to the little details and that’s what pays off in the end – I’ve been working since the end of last season and I think I’m seeing some improvements so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it pays off.
“I was a bit inconsistent last year overall. I had a lot of ups and downs and I want to keep it more stable, and I think a lot of that is down to strategy and mindset.
“You need to just play your game where I have sometimes tried to force things, move away from my strategy to try to catch up some shots and ultimately you pay the price, so I’m just going to try not to do anything out of the ordinary and keep playing my game.”
An early season highlight is sure to be the return of match play golf to the Challenge Tour schedule after an 18 year absence at the Andalucía Costa del Sol Match Play 9.
The tournament takes place next month at La Cala Resort, a course very familiar to Andalusian Fernandez, with another potential advantage coming from his relatively fresh experience still playing match play golf in his still-recent amateur days.
“La Cala is very close to where I live,” he said. “I know the course well and I’m really looking forward to that format. I was following the scores in Perth where they did it and it looks pretty fun, a lot of players gave it the thumbs up, so I’m really looking forward to it.
“It’s a little different and it’s really good that the tour is trying to do innovative things to bring more attention to the game and expand the players’ games too.
“I still have match play golf pretty fresh in my game. The week leading up to the tournament I’ll try to play some match play at home with my friends and with some other pros and I’m sure it will be a fun week.
“It’s a very tricky course. Last year in general I think I went too aggressive a lot of the time and I think that course in particular, you need to do the total opposite.
“You need to be very strategic from the tee especially, take a lot of irons and just place the ball in the right spots instead of hitting it far – the strongest part of my game is the driver but that’s not always a good play, especially at La Cala.”
