Andrea Pavan, the 2013 Challenge Tour Number One, signalled a return to the kind of form which has earned him four titles on Europe’s top developmental tour as the Italian moved to within two shots of the lead on day two of the D+D REAL Czech Challenge.
The 27 year old has twice graduated from the Challenge Tour to the European Tour, finishing second only to Tommy Fleetwood in the rankings in 2011 before going one better three years ago.
Although the Roman missed the cut in the season-opening Barclays Kenya Open, a top 20 in the Challenge de Madrid followed by consecutive tied seventh place finishes at the Turkish Airlines Challenge and Montecchia Open by Lyoness have proven he is close to being back to his winning best.
After carding a second round 67 at Golf and Spa Kunetická Hora to move to a 12 under total, three back from Frenchman Adrien Saddier, Pavan said he believes he is hitting his stride for the 2016 campaign and is hopeful of vying for a fifth title this weekend.
“I definitely feel like I’m coming into some winning form,” he said. “I’ve started hitting my irons good, my tee shots better and I control my misses better so that’s important. Of course here it’s a little more forgiving but in order to score you have to hit fairways and I was on the fairway a lot.
“I know what it takes to win, but you just have to do it and every time it’s a new challenge. There are plenty of good guys and on a course like this you want to be there and get the round going on Sunday because if the weather stays like this, it will take some good scores.
“You just have to keep going and if it’s not this week, there are a lot of other good weeks ahead of me so I’m just trying to get my form and consistency back, that’s what I’m striving for.”
Pavan’s five under score makes it a ninth successive sub-par round with a cumulative total of 39 under for those efforts and he believes it could be the result of two parts of his game, which have not yet worked in tandem, peaking together this week in Czech Republic.
“Overall it was a good first two days. It can always be better and it can also go the other way but I’ve putted well since Italy. In Turkey, I had a good ball-striking week but didn’t putt well at all but managed myself into a top ten there – that was very satisfying.
“I played very well yesterday and today I started off well. I was maybe not as sharp with my long game – my tee shots were not as solid – but I made two long putts, at five and eight, so they were two bonuses.
“From there on and after the turn I began playing really well, hitting it to 12-15 feet, giving myself chances, and I didn’t really capitalise on those. At the end I missed two short putts for bogey, which was disappointing and especially because I was playing well.
“This course is not much different to the one in Italy, it’s pretty playable and you just need to give yourself chances and be aggressive. Patience is very important - you feel like if you don’t make birdie you kind of lose ground but yesterday I was playing so well I didn’t even know what my score was."
