Riu Victor secures his maiden Challenge Tour victory at the Swiss Challenge – Golf news
Riu Victor held on to his nerves in the final moments of the Swiss Challenge to secure the maiden European Challenge Tour victory of his career, on Sunday, July 14, 2013.
The tournament was being staged at Golf Sempachersee, featuring some of the best players from different parts of the world.
Entering the final round, Victor held a four-stroke lead. He then got off to a shaky start, as conceded three bogeys against two birdies on the front nine of the course and reached the turn in one over.
The back nine of the course also witnessed him starting with a birdie. Thereafter, he managed to make a comeback by recording four par putts on each of the next four holes, followed by three straight birdies, to finish three strokes ahead of Brinson Paolini
and Adam Gee.
Talking to the European Challenge Tour’s official website, the Italian admitted that he was nervous entering into the final round, which was the main reason behind his below par performance over the first 10 holes.
According to him, he told himself to relax and started focusing on his natural game, rather than trying anything extra and stupid. As a result, he managed to play amazingly well with his putter and did not lose a single shot thereafter.
“I’m so happy, but it hasn’t quite sunk in yet,” said the 28 year old. “I struggled a lot at the start so I’m delighted that I was able to produce a strong finish.I was very nervous and tight on the first few holes and I didn’t trust my swing. I was in the
last group last week and didn’t finish well, so I learned from that that I needed to relax.”
“My putting was a lot better on the back nine, and it was important to get that birdie on the 17th to play the last with no pressure,” he added.
After winning the event, Victor surged to the third spot in the European Challenge Tour Rankings, courtesy of €25,600 prize money that he grabbed. He now plans to keep the momentum going into the upcoming events in order to secure his European Tour card
for the 2014 golf season.
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