Romain Langasque is solely focused on achieving success in his rookie season on the European Challenge Tour – after turning down a chance to play in this week's Memorial Invitation in favour of playing in this week’s Swiss Challenge presented by Association Suisse de Golf.
The reigning Amateur Champion, who has three top-five finishes from five events on the 2016 Road to Oman, declined an offer from the Golden Bear to play on the US PGA Tour – instead choosing to battle it out on Europe’s top developmental tour.
The 20 year old has his sights firmly set on rising up the Road to Oman Rankings, and he is happy to be teeing it up at Golf Sempachersee in Lucerne rather than at Muirfield Village in Ohio.
“I want to focus my energy on the Challenge Tour and nothing else,” said the Frenchman, who has made the cut in both the Masters Tournament and the Open Championship.
“I didn’t take the invite from Jack Nicklaus because if I had left for the US last week I would have not been able to play in Europe the week after, plus it puts a lot of pressure on me.
“Playing in other competitions is not the most important thing for me. I will play in the French Open for my federation, but this the only exception.
“If I played on the PGA Tour five times and the European Tour five times through invites and only achieve little things – maybe just making the cut – I would not gain anything for next year. It is not my objective.
“I want to finish in the top 15 and we’ll see what happens next year but I am taking it step by step.”
Romain Langasque won the 2015 Amateur Championship at Carnoustie after beating Scotland's Grant Forrest in the final.
Langasque, who turned professional after equalling the best final round score by an amateur at the Masters with a four-under par 68, believes his game is in good shape and is confident a first professional win is just around the corner.
“I want to win a tournament this year – it could be this week, it could not – but I also want to be patient,” he said.
“I have just had one week off without golf. I’ve been spending some time with my family and my girlfriend and last week I practised with my coach so coming into this week I feel really good. On the course I will try to do my best.
“The course this week is looking very good but tough with lots of heavy rough so I will just try to have a good strategy.
“I think I will aim to be more offensive as I have finished second once and fifth twice so I am not far away – just one or two shots behind. But with all the low scoring on the Challenge Tour recently you need to come out and shoot 20 under if you want to win, so I will try to attack more.”
