Lloyd Saltman eyes a victory at the D+D Real Czech Challenge Open
Lloyd Saltman shrugged off the feeling of disappointment of his defeat at the ALLIANZ Open de Lyon, and is confident to record his first European Challenge Tour victory at this week’s D+D Real Czech Challenge Open.
Entering the final round of the ALLIANZ Open de Lyon, Saltman was leading the field and he remained on top until he lost two shots in a row on the 17th and the 18th hole.
As a result, Chris Doak and Tim Sluiter entered the sudden-death playoffs after sharing the top spot on the leaderboard.
Doak then defeated his rival on the third extra hole to take the title home – his first professional victory of the career.
It was a huge disappointment for the Saltman, especially when he came so close to his maiden victory on the tour. The Scotsman himself admitted that he was really upset in the immediate aftermath of the tournament.
Yet, he came out of the depression after thinking about his overall performance in the tournament.
“It was difficult in the end,” he said. “But at the same time I went into that week just focussed on winning and I don’t really regret anything I did.
He added, “I played well all week and it was good to be in that position. ...It was a positive week really and I've taken a lot of confidence from it”.
The 27-year-old moved to the 56th position in the European Challenge Tour Rankings, thanks to his tied third-place finish last week.
This week at the Kunetická Hora Golf Club in the Czech Republic, he plans to further improve his position with another good finish on the leaderboard.
If he succeeds in making it to the top-45 players in the Rankings, he will get exemption to participate in the season-ending Apulia San Domenico Grand Final in two weeks’ time.
“Obviously top 45 in the Rankings is the goal and I took a good step to that last week so just the same again this week because I’m playing well,” he said. “My game is in good shape ... I'm looking forward to the challenge this week”.
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