The European Challenge Tour follows The European Tour’s visit to Milan with the Parco di Monza Challenge, an event which signals the start of 18 consecutive Challenge Tour tournaments as the 2006 season gets into full swing.
Frenchman Olivier David is hoping such regular competition will herald a return to the form that saw him secure his maiden Challenge Tour victory exactly one year ago at the FIRSTPLUS Wales Challenge, and enabled him to end the 2005 season with a career best 28th place finish on the final Rankings.
David, who played in the Telecom Italia Open last week, will make the short trip from the Castello di Tolcinasco Golf and Country Club just south of Milan to the Golf Club Milano, next to the famous Monza Formula One racing track, to rejoin his fellow Challenge Tour colleagues in the race for the 20 European Tour cards on offer this season.
After enduring a harsh winter in his native France, David has struggled to find the winning formula this season but remains confident his game is turning the corner.
“I have found the start of the season quite difficult because we had a bad winter in France and that stopped me from practising as much as I would have liked,” said David.
“I could not afford to go abroad to get the better weather and practice facilities, so my game is not where I would like it to be at this stage of the season. But I can feel it getting better and this is the time of year that we will now be playing almost every week on the Challenge Tour, and that will give me the chance to get back into competition, and to get my game back to where I want it.
“I played in The European Tour event in Milan last week, so I have been here for a week and that could help me when I go to Monza. I missed the cut last week, but that was mostly because of what I have said about my game not being right yet.
“I do not feel there is too much of a difference between the field at the Italian Open last week and the standard of the Challenge Tour. I think if I was playing in the British Masters this week I would have noticed the difference because there are a lot of the best European players coming back to the main Tour this week, but last week there were so many guys in contention who were there for the first time.”
The field at the Parco di Monza Challenge will certainly be enhanced by the presence of the current Challenge Tour Number One Johan Axgren of Sweden, while Mexico’s Antonio Maldonado – winner of the 48th Abierto Mexicano Corona – and Welshman Kyron Sullivan - winner of the Estoril Challenge - are also set to tee up at the Golf Club Milano, meaning the top three are all in action this week.
Axgren has made a dream start to the 2006 Schedule, winning both the Kai Fieberg Costa Rica Open 2006 and the Tusker Kenya Open which, as a result, has given him a formidable lead at the top of the Rankings as well as offering him the chance of immediate promotion to The European Tour if he can secure one more win before the end of the season.
