The European Challenge Tour players will face two battles this week at the €120,000 Open Mahou de Madrid, the first being the course at La Herreria Club de Golf, while the second potentially more dangerous enemy will be the sweltering summer heat of the Spanish capital of Madrid.
According to Spain’s own Ivo Giner, the heat and humidity could be the deciding factor in Madrid, as the second half of the Challenge Tour season get underway.
Giner, and many of the Challenge Tour’s Latin American and Southern European based players, will be used to will be used to the dehydrating effects of playing golf in the middle of a Spanish summer, but they will still have to be wary of the conditions with temperatures capable of rising to 40 degrees centigrade.
“The course at La Herreria Club de Golf is pretty good but I think the main thing we will be battling this week is the heat,” said Giner. “At this time of year, Madrid is usually very hot, and I mean ‘very’ hot, and these conditions could have an affect on how you play because it can be tough on your body to spend so much time in this kind of heat.”
It was at the same time of the season two years ago that Giner was the hottest player on the Challenge Tour. The 29 year old captured two Challenge Tour titles – the Open des Volcans Challenge de France and the Golf Club Padova Terme Euganee International Open – in the space of three weeks, which helped him to 14th place on the Rankings and promoted him to The European Tour.
Giner is hopeful of a return to the top level this season, and is confident that his game is progressing in the right way to be able to add to the three Challenge Tour titles that he has won in his professional career so far.
“I’m doing alright, I am quite happy with the game but it is not quite ready to win yet. The best thing is that I am enjoying playing so it’s a just a case of being patient and practicing hard because the confidence is quite high at the moment. Physically I am in good shape and I am almost very good technically but just a little inconsistent at the moment.
“I just need one good week to get up to the level where I feel I can win again. For instance when I won those two tournaments on the Challenge Tour in 2003 I knew I could win and I just played, just let it go. I finished top ten the week before winning the Open des Volcans but I don’t feel as though I am in that position yet but I am confident that it will come soon.
“My goal this year is to get my card back for The European Tour, and if I can get that winning form back that I had in 2003 then I should be able to get there.”
