With a pair of two-time winners, Moritz Lampert and Jake Roos, present this week for the Swiss Challenge presented by Association Suisse de Golf, this could be a huge week on the Challenge Tour, but will either make our Five to Watch at Golf Sempachersee? Read on to find out…
Moritz Lampert
Two treble-chasers arrive at this week’s Swiss Challenge presented by Association Suisse de Golf, Moritz Lampert and Jake Roos, but of the two, the young German’s form certainly suggests that he is the most likely to claim a third title and earn automatic European Tour qualification.
In just seven appearances, Lampert has produced the kind of form which conjures memories of his compatriot Martin Kaymer’s breath-taking whistle-stop tour through Europe’s second tier in 2006 en route to the top of the world game.
While Kaymer did not graduate automatically with three victories, he earned two wins, four further top fives and two more top 15 finished in the space of eight events, having only begun his career on the Challenge Tour in August of that year.
That incredible purple patch, and his subsequent success, has surely been providing a spark of inspiration for Lampert and two quickfire wins in the space of three weeks in May and June, as well a runner-up finish at the Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts, has virtually guaranteed his place on The European Tour last year.
Lampert has won at Golf Sempachersee before, at the 2008 Swiss International Amateur championship, so what odds that Lampert will join the likes of Brooks Koepka and Kristoffer Broberg as an instant graduate via the three-win route?
Nathan Kimsey
The Englishman is a relatively unknown quantity on the Challenge Tour, but the 2013 Walker Cup player is showing signs of real promise.
Kimsey made his professional debut at the National Bank of Oman Classic last year, the Challenge Tour season’s penultimate event, and earned the prize as the highest-ranked amateur with an admirable top 20 finish in the Middle Eastern heat.
In seven appearances this season, he has only missed two cuts but it is in the past two weeks when he has really sparkled, with successive top ten finishes.
He carded a final round 66 at the Aegean Airlines Challenge Tour by Hartl Resort to finish tied sixth, the best result of his Challenge Tour career, before ending last week’s D+D Real Slovakia Challenge with another final round 66 to claim tied seventh.
At just 21 years of age, Kimsey could be a real surprise package this season – is this week the one in which he makes the biggest breakthrough of his short professional career?
Edouard Espana
The last three winners of the Swiss Challenge presented by Association Suisse de Golf have been French, and Espana looks the best placed to continue that trend and make it four at Golf Sempachersee.
The 24 year old has been on extremely consistent form this year, missing just one cut in 11 events, securing his best finish of the season at the Scottish Hydro Challenge hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts, where he shared sixth place.
Five more top 20 finishes have helped him to 25th in the Challenge Tour Rankings but with such steady form, it feels like only a matter of time before the Bordeaux native makes a significant challenge for a title.
Espana thinks the trend of French success at the Lucerne venue might be down to the fresh air of the Alps, which traverse across the south of the continent beginning with France to the west of Switzerland.
Can this be the week Espana scales the heights and finishes at the summit of the leaderboard?
Pedro Oriol
Attempting to follow his compatriots Antonio Hortal and Jordi Garcia Pinto into the Challenge Tour winners’ circle, Oriol is starting to show the kind of form which earned him a tied runner-up finish at the season’s first event, the Barclays Kenya Open.
Two weeks ago, the 27 year old struggled to a disappointing finish at the Aegean Airlines Challenge Tour by Hartl Resort but still claimed a tied 12th finish.
Last week, he went one another step better with a share of fifth place at the D+D Real Slovakia Challenge courtesy of an impressive final round 67.
This week, he returns to a tournament which treated him very well last year, having holed out twice with approaches from the fairway last year to finish with a stunning 64.
Form and good memories are on his side so can Oriol become the third Spanish winner of the season this week?
Florian Fritsch
While his compatriot Lampert has been stealing the headlines on the Challenge Tour this year, Fritsch has been enjoying some of the best form of his career recently thanks to an incredible collection of top ten and top 15 finishes.
In his second appearance of the year, the former University of South Carolina student claimed a share of fourth in the Kärnten Golf Open presented by Mazda before following that up with another top ten in the Czech Republic.
He missed out on a maiden Challenge Tour title by the narrowest of margins at the Belgian Challenge Open, losing to Englishman William Harrold in a play-off, but has not let that halt his progress and followed that up with a tied sixth finish in Scotland and two more top 15 finishes.
The 28 year old, who has a fear of flying, appears determined to make the most of the Challenge Tour’s sojourn through mainland Europe and he could well be there or thereabouts come Sunday afternoon in Switzerland.
