King eyeing second Italian crown

Gary King returns to Italy – the scene of his maiden European Challenge Tour triumph at this season’s Montecchia Open by Lyoness – targeting another strong performance at the Terre dei Consoli Open as he bids to seal a spot in the top 15 of the Road to Oman.

The Englishman, who is in his first season on Europe’s top developmental tour having come through the satellite EuroPro Tour last year, currently sits in 19^thspot in the Rankings, just 10,000 points outside the European Tour-qualifying places.

The 26 year old has shown glimpses of his best form lately, with a top ten finish at the Volopa Irish Challenge hosted by Mount Wolseley Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort last month, and he hopes to draw on his winning memories in Rome this week.

“It went pretty well when I was last here,” he said. “It’s certainly good to be back on Italian soil, with those nice memories, and hopefully I can reproduce some of the same stuff.

“I feel I need a good result soon. It’s certainly coming into the crunch time, with five tournaments to go, and it’s something I’ve been good at in the past, delivering results when I’ve needed to, so hopefully I can do much the same in the next five weeks.

“I feel like I’m starting to play some good golf – I’ve had a tenth and a 12^thin my last three tournaments, so if I can continue that form, keep putting how I’m putting and just improve my approach play a little bit then I think I’ll be good to go.

“The course looks great, and the forecast looks very nice – it’ll be good to get some sun and some heat. It’s a long course so I think a good driver, someone hitting it 300 plus and nice and straight, will probably have a good chance round here.

“I’ve been doing some panic gym sessions the last couple of days – after playing with Jordan Smith last week I’ve realised I need to step it up a little bit! So I’ll get a few extra gym sessions in, get some calories down, and hopefully bulk up by Thursday.

“After the EuroPro last year I’ve learned not to target a specific number of points – everyone was telling me I had my card wrapped up and I thought I had and then the number was way higher than it had ever been before, and it’s going to be the same on the Challenge Tour this year.

“I’ve just got to try to put together some good results, try to win each tournament, as I do each week anyway, and hopefully it will be good enough come the end of it.

“I feel like when I’m in contention it’s where I produce my best stuff. If I could get a little bit more consistency, get myself into contention a bit more often, that would be good, but I’ve not got any doubts that when I’m in that position I can close it out.

“Hopefully this week, or at some point in the next five, I’ll get myself up there come the final day and I’ll be able to close it out again.”