The European Challenge Tour this week makes the first of three visits to France for the Aa 4th Open de Saint Omer. This new event on the 2000 European Challenge Tour Schedule will be a 'tri-sanctioned' tournament. The MasterCard Tour and the French Tour have joined forces with the Challenge Tour to form a top class tournament with prize money of 1,000,000 French Francs (152,000 euro).
This will be the fourth edition of the tournament, won last year by Alastair Forsyth of Scotland. Forsyth went on to win the European Tour Qualifying School Finals at San Roque and has already secured his card for 2001 after a series of high class performances on the European Tour in his rookie season.
In addition to hosting the Aa Saint Omer Open, the Club - located 30 minutes from Boulogne - also hosted the French National Professional Championship in 1995 and 1996. The golf club is ten years old and is a 27-hole complex. This year's tournament will be played on the par 73 'Val Course', which was designed by architect Dudock Van Heel and stretches to 6,294 metres (6,885 yards).
Among the entries are Richard Gillot, Trevor Immelman, Alvaro Salto, all Challenge Tour winners this season.