IAN KEENAN'S TOUR DIARY: Opportunity knocks at finale

Oct 16 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

THE EPD Tour is the national tour of Germany (although it’s schedule includes stops in Poland, Austria and Spain) and their season ending ‘Grand Finale’ involves the top-60 players in the EPD Tour order of merit.

As a third tier tour in professional golf, the EPD Tour carries the same standing as the Europro Tour in this country, with the top five players gaining an automatic exemption onto the Challenge Tour.

Although the strength in depth of the EPD Tour isn’t quite up to Europro standard, there are some excellent players at the top of the order of merit and this was their last chance to confirm the last few places on next year’s Challenge Tour.

Germany’s Tino Schuster was in pole position on the order of merit (and could not be caught) with England’s Lee Corfield and Austria’s Damien Ulrich having already secured their place in the top five.

Four other players would be playing for the remaining two spots and the pressure was on.

For me, this is only my second event on this year’s EPD Tour (my first being a second place finish in the Paderborn Classic in April) and a top-five position in the order of merit is out of the question. I like playing in Germany and with some important events coming up, I was keen keep playing and chose to travel to Germany to save having a week off.

The venue was Provost Golf Club, near the small town of Hunfeld. A pretty, undulating, par-72 course that would provide plenty of birdie chances but also had it’s share of challenging holes.

I travelled on Monday for a Thursday start and spent a couple of nights in Kassel with Wirral boy (and former Royal Liverpool assistant professional) Andrew Winstanley, who is the teaching professional at Kassel Golf Club.

Andrew showed me around the city of Kassel and kindly dropped me off in Hunfeld in time for my practice round on Wednesday.

Here’s how the tournament went:

Thursday, October 4: A good draw for me as I was paired in the first round with a pal of mine from Germany, Christoph Gunther, and I had a steady day with five birdies and a single bogey for a four under 68. It was a very enjoyable round, with Christoph scoring an excellent 65 to lead the tournament.

I had my chances to score lower but it didn’t quite work out as planned. Still, a 68 is a solid start and there are plenty of chances out there.

The evening was spent enjoying a pizza while trying to find a place to watch the Everton game! An impossible task so I had to rely on texts from my mate Ron who, at around 11.30pm (my time) confirmed that “we are still in Europe kid!”

I slept soundly after that!

Friday October 5: A day of too many mistakes, I’m afraid. I had the same amount of birdies as yesterday, but unfortunately, cancelled them out with careless bogeys and I had to settle for a level par round of 72.

With Christoph increasing his lead after a 70, to be on minus 9, I will have to score in the low 60’s if I am to catch him tomorrow.

Saturday, October 6: Looking for a fast start, I got just that with an eagle at the par-five first hole and a birdie at the sixth to go to three under. Dropped shots at 7 and 8 halted progress slightly, but I rallied well with a birdie at 9 to be out in a two under 34. The back nine was steady, with the highlight being a second eagle of the day at the par-five 11th. I coasted home in par figures for a 68, that left me at eight under and in sixth place.

Not a bad week and I left Germany feeling positive about the progress I feel I am making.

Christoph Gunther held out for an impressive ‘wire to wire’ victory and there was drama for the players jostling for a top-five spot. Englishman James Ruth unfortunately bogeyed the 18th hole to miss out on a top-five place by just €42 euros, giving way to Will Beesling and Max Kramer.

I felt for James as he held a top-five spot for most of the season before today. Still, he has time on his side and I am sure he will use these experiences to gain his playing rights on the Challenge Tour for the 2009 season.

For the rest of my season, I have a couple of local events over the next fortnight (on the Tamsel and Exel Tours) before the all-important Europro Tour Championships at the end of October. The venue, for which, has just been announced as the St Andrews Bay Torrance course. I am delighted to play such an important event on such a good golf course (if only a little worried at the potential low temperatures that late October in Scotland may produce!)

I have performed well over the Torrance course in the past and will look forward to the challenge of winning the tournament (for the top 60 in the Europro rankings) and with it, a place on next year’s Challenge Tour.