The stakes are sky high at the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic and, over the beautiful but challenging Almouj Golf, The Wave course, the cream is sure to rise to the top.Europeantour.comtakes a look at some of the form players worth watching at the penultimate event of the European Challenge Tour season.
Moritz Lampert
The young German makes a return to the Challenge Tour having already graduated to The European Tour earlier this year on the back of three victories this season, but he is dismissing any ideas that he is here purely to play a ‘cameo’ role.
Lampert wants to be the star of the show as the Challenge Tour reaches its exciting climax with the final two tournaments of the season in Oman and Dubai, so he will be hungry for success this week at the stunning Almouj The Wave.
He currently lies in second place in the Rankings, €47,280 behind leader Andrew Johnston, but with the Englishman not in the field this week, it is a perfect opportunity for the 22 year old, who is attached to European Tour Destination Golf Club St Leon Rot, to narrow that gap or overtake the leader.
A victory this week is the only result that could move him to the summit, while a high finish would pile the pressure on and make for a thrilling conclusion in the race to become the 2014 Challenge Tour Number One.
Byeong-hun An
Another man who retains hopes of catching Johnston at the top of the European Challenge Tour Rankings in the final two weeks of the season, An has the added morale-booster of some form at this venue, having earned a tied sixth place finish last year.
The former US Amateur Champion became the first Korean to win on the Challenge Tour back in July when he claimed the Rolex Trophy, removing a significant monkey from his back in the shape of a maiden professional title.
Since then, he has continued his extremely consistent form and a third place finish at the Kazakhstan Open means he has secured a European Tour card for the 2015 season.
With those shackles also removed, paired with his exciting, attacking brand of golf, this could be a perfect place for An to flourish and double his trophy haul for the year.
Benjamin Hebert
The Frenchman is chasing history over the next two weeks as he aims to claim a sixth career Challenge Tour title, beating the current record of five which he equalled with his last win at the Open Blue Green Cotes d Armor Bretagne.
A win this week would mean securing automatic European Tour graduation from the second tier through the three-wins-in-a-season rule for a second time, although he would resume his Race to Dubai career at the beginning of the 2015 campaign with the Final Series now underway.
His recent record is quite something. In his last six appearances, the gifted Frenchman has won twice, finished runner up once, shared third place once and missed two cuts, so if the 27 year old brings his game to Almouj The Wave, he will surely be there or thereabouts come the final stretch on Sunday.
Matthew Fitzpatrick
One of the most talked-about young golfers in the world this year, Fitzpatrick has been living up to the hype he created as a fearless amateur since turning professional and has taken to the Challenge Tour like a duck to water.
The Englishman has claimed three top tens in his last four appearances, so he is a form horse heading into this week’s National Bank of Oman Golf Classic as he chases a spot in the season-ending Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia Golf Club.
He is just one place outside the top 45 that make it to Dubai next week so a big performance is needed, but as he has proven in winning the US Amateur Championship, then the Silver Medal at The 2013 Open Championship, he is a man for the big occasion.
Daniel Gaunt
The Australian-born Englishman boldly predicted earlier this season that he would win a Challenge Tour title this year, having just missed out on claiming a third career victory at the D+D REAL Czech Challenge.
How he could do with that win this week. The 35 year old sits in 22d place in the Rankings and that has largely been down to a timely purple patch of late which has yielded back to back tied sixth place finishes, at the The Shankai Classic presented by IDG and The Foshan Open.
Gaunt is surely back into the swing of things halfway through the Challenge Tour’s newly-branded ‘Final Swing;’ but can he follow it through and climb into the all-important top 15.
A big week here in Muscat, where he missed the cut last year, would surely seal the deal.
