With six rounds of 66 between them over the first two days in France, the leading trio of Filippo Bergamaschi, Jens Fahrbring and Jason Palmer remain inseparable at the halfway stage of the Challenge Tour’s Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge.
Each of the three leaders have posted consecutive 66s to share the ten under lead at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil and set up an intriguing weekend at the 15 event of the Challenge Tour season. There are 16 players within five shots of the leaders, with Pierre Relecom, Jack Senior and Gareth Shaw heading the chasing pack on eight under.
Italy’s Bergamaschi dropped just one shot during his five under par effort, and the 23 year old is reaping the benefits of having played in the tournament last year.
“The course is really good,” said Bergamaschi. “I holed a lot of putts in the last two day and have been pretty consistent from the tee and managed to take some good chances. I just made a couple of mistakes, but not too many so the scores have been good so far.
“I missed the cut last year but it has really helped me this week because o now the golf course and the lay out. Tomorrow, I will try to keep it simple as I managed to do during the last two days and try to make a good score.”
Palmer had a similar day at the office to Bergamaschi – just the single dropped shot to add to six birdies for a five under 66. The Englishman secured his return to the Challenge Tour in 2014 having won the Alps Tour last season and he is playing with the similar levels of confidence that saw him win three titles en route to his Alps Tour success.
“I just managed to stay nice and patient,” said Palmer. “I am still learning when to take weeks off and trying to get my schedule right. There are a lot of guys who plan their schedule quite well, take weeks off and then come back and play better the next week. I had a week off last week and came back refreshed and ready to go.
“Tomorrow, I won't think about anyone else is doing and try to stick to the plan game I've got and execute that and that is all I can do. Obviously, winning the Alps Tour last year gave me a lot of confidence but I knew I had struggled before on the Challenge Tour. I do feel like I can but it is very difficult to win a golf tournament. You need everything to click into place the right week, you need four good rounds, but why shouldn’t it my week?”
After six back nine birdies helped him join Bergamaschi and Palmer at the top of the leaderboard, Fahrbring had every right to feel that it is destined to be his week.
The Swede went to the turn in one under before enjoying a roller coaster back nine when he added to bogeys and just a single par to his six birdies to share the lead.
“I have being playing pretty good all year actually,” said Fahrbring, a Challenge Tour winner in Norway last season.
“It has always been one round or maybe just nine bad holes every tournament that has hurt my chances but this week I have played OK from tee to green. My distance control with the irons has been really good but most of all, my putting have been really, really good.
“On this golf course, even though you have a wedge in your hands, you can't really go to the pins so the putting becomes even more important and I have done putted really well do far this week.
“Last year when I won in Norway, it was different because I was leading after three rounds. It is a boring answer but for tomorrow, I try to do the same. There will be a bunch of guys shooting low scores so I will just have to make birdies.”
