The Road to Mallorca continues with the 11th edition of the D+D Real Czech Challenge at Panorama Golf Resort. Here are your three players to watch out for this week…
Form horse
Fresh off his win in Denmark last weekend, Matteo Manassero arrives in the Czech Republic sitting fifth in the season-long standings on the European Challenge Tour. On the tenth anniversary weekend of his memorable win at Wentworth Club in the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour, the 30-year-old Italian produced a bogey-free six-under 66 in the final round at Royal Golf Club in Copenhagen to overturn a six-shot deficit to the overnight leader and return to the winner’s circle for the first time since the 2020 Toscana Open on the Alps Tour. His results had been on the up in recent times too, with a run of five consecutive cuts made culminating in a seventh-place finish at the UAE Challenge in early May. Can he become the first back-to-back winner on the Challenge Tour since JC Ritchie at the start of last season?
Local boy
A two-time Challenge Tour winner, Ondrej Lieser is the most well-known active golfer from the Czech Republic. He became the first golfer from his country to win on the Tour at the 2020 Andalucía Challenge de España before he won the season-ending Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A to top the Road to Mallorca Rankings later that year. This will be his first appearance of this season and first since the Acciona Open de España presented by Madrid last October and he will be hoping that playing on home soil can inspire him to a good performance. His best finish in his previous six starts at this event came in 2013 when he finished in a tie for 30th.
The outsider
With the event moving to a new venue this year, course knowledge is likely to be in short supply among the field for the first of two stops on the Challenge Tour schedule in the Czech Republic. Haydn Porteous may only be making his second appearance in this event and first since 2015 but the South African will have plenty of fond memories of playing in this country. He claimed his second DP World Tour title and third at a European Tour group sanctioned event in the D+D Real Czech Masters at nearby Albatross Golf Resort, where he is attached to. In his four Challenge Tour starts so far this season, the 28-year-old has missed three cuts but has spoken about how he is starting to enjoy the game again.
