The European Challenge Tour heads to Mallemort, France with only a handful of tournaments left in the season. Here are five facts about the Hopps Open de Provence before the action gets under way.
Première impression
The Hopps Open de Provence will make its debut appearance on the Challenge Tour’s International Schedule and will become the fourth event to take place in France this season.
Having visited Saint-Omer Golf Club, Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil and Golf Blue Green de Pléneuf Val André, Europe’s top developmental tour heads to Golf International de Pont Royal in southern France for the first time.
Seve’s French legacy
The great Severiano Ballesteros left a lasting impression on the Estate of Pont Royal as he designed Golf International de Pont Royal – the only course associated with his name in France.
The course opened in 1992 after a year’s build on the former hunting grounds and pine forests of Pont Royal. At the turn of the millennium a new clubhouse was built, and ten years later there was the additions of a golf academy and a separate six-hole course.
Javier Ballesteros, son of Seve, will tee it up at Pont Royal in his first Challenge Tour event since 2016.
French domination
There will be 37 players teeing it up on home soil at the Hopps Open de Provence, including Victor Perez, who is the highest ranked Frenchman on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah.
Perez, who lies 28thin the Rankings, finished joint 14thin Kazakhstan last week and tied 11that the Cordon Golf Open earlier in the month after a share of 15that the Rolex Trophy and tied fourth finish in Northern Ireland in August.
Winners to go again in France
Nine champions from the 2018 Challenge Tour season will tee it up this week, including Stuart Manley, who won the Hauts de France Golf Open.
The Welshman beat Grant Forrest on the third play-off hole to claim his first Challenge Tour title since the Finnish Challenge in 2013. Manley currently sits inside the top five in the Rankings and with five events remaining, he will be keen to maintain his goal and graduate on to the European Tour at the end of the season.
Manley is joined in France by Road to Ras Al Khaimah leader Joachim B. Hansen, who has won the Turkish Airlines Challenge and Made in Denmark Challenge presented by Ejner Hessel this season. A third win for the Dane would see him gain automatic promotion to the European Tour.
One of their own
Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera is a previous winner at the Golf International de Pont Royal after his victory on the Alps Tour in 2007.
In the same season as he topped the Challenge Tour Rankings and graduated to the European Tour, the Montpellier star won the Masters 13 event by six shots at Pont Royal with an overall score of 15 under par.
