Clément Sordet believes the experience from playing in both the 100th Open de France and The 145th Open Championship will prove invaluable as he returns to Galgorm Castle Golf Club to defend his Tayto Northern Ireland Open Presented by Ulster Bank title.
The Frenchman secured his maiden victory in Northern Ireland last year as he beat American John Hahn by one shot. Earlier this year, he won his second event, the Turkish Airlines Challenge.
Since then, he received an invitation to play the L’Albatros Course at Le Golf National in the Open de France and his tied runner-up finish in last year’s Thailand Golf Championship earned an exemption to The Open at Royal Troon.
“It’s been a great season so far,” said Sordet. “I took three weeks off to play the French Open and The Open – that was a bonus for the year.
“It was an amazing experience, but it feels god to be back on the Challenge Tour competing against these guys.
“After playing on the European Tour, I now know why I’m waking up in the morning to do this. It’s my dream to play in those tournaments again and all I have to do is finish in the top 15 at the end of the year.”
Sordet currently sits in 16th place on the Road to Oman Rankings, with the top 15 earning a European Tour card for 2017.
He is less than €500 off a spot in the top 15, but the 23 year old insists he isn’t paying attention to the leaderboard.
“I’m not really looking at the rankings right now,” he admitted. “I’m just concentrating on my game and getting better every day. I know that if I play my game consistently, I’ll have a really good chance of making it.”
In the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge, Sordet recorded his best finish since his win in Turkey, where he tied fifth after shooting a 72 hole total of eleven under par.
“I had a good week,” he said. “And I feel as though I’m playing well. It’s good to be home here at Galgorm – it feels like home because I won here last year.
“It’s nice to know there’s the grandstand on the final hole, and there will be a lot of people here over the weekend.
“When I first arrived here it brought back a lot of happy memories. I saw the parking lot and that was where I was holding the trophy and taking a lot of pictures with kids who came to watch – it feels good to be back here.
“But everything goes back to zero and it doesn’t matter who won here last year, that was 365 days ago. A lot of things have changed since then, but hopefully I’ll play as well as I did in 2015 and win again.”
