Sebastian Gros is hoping to capitalise on his strong recent form to become the first home winner of the Najeti Open Presented by Neuflize OBC in 14 years as the European Challenge Tour touches down on French soil for the first time this season.
The Frenchman is currently the highest-ranked Frenchman on the Road to Oman having enjoyed a flying start to his season with back-to-back top five finishes at the Kärnten Golf Open presented by Mazda and D+D REAL Czech Challenge helping move him to 14th in the Rankings.
Gros is playing his first full season on Europe’s top developmental tour and hit the ground running with a top 20 finish at the Challenge de Madrid, his first event of the season. The 25 year old has since gone from strength to strength and he is feeling good, even though he is playing the tricky Saint Omer lay-out for the first time.
“This is the first time I’ve been here,” said the Lyon player. “For my first two seasons as professional I was on the Alps Tour and last year on the Asian Tour I played on a golf course similar to this one, but even more tricky.
“The design is unique and the fairways this week are very dry so the driving is even more complicated. We will have to play smart and to accept the lucky and unlucky bounces that can happen on this golf course.
“On the front nine, you can play aggressive. Once you have managed to put your tee shot on the fairway, you have many opportunities to make a birdie, but on the back nine it is more of a cautious approach that is needed. To score nine pars from the tenth hole onwards is something all players would settle for at the beginning of the week.”
Gros earned his Challenge Tour card having negotiated each of the three stages of Qualifying School, enduring an emotional roller-coaster at the Final Stage at PGA Catalunya Resort last November.
He walked off the course thinking a three-putt from ten feet at the final hole had meant he would miss the cut for the final two days of play, even shedding some tears at the disappointment. But a series of scores elsewhere meant he eventually made the cut.
Gros bounced back in style and a strong showing on the fifth day meant he was in contention for a European Tour card, but three bogeys on the way in on the final day meant he missed out by just one stroke.
The former European Team Championships winner with France is not preoccupied by what might have been, however, and thinks that it may well have been a blessing in disguise.
“When it happened it was really hard to deal with,” he said. “But my coach (former European Tour player) Benoit Teilleria told me that it the experience will prove a positive one in the end.
“If I had got that European Tour card and been the last player of those who made it, I would have been dividing my schedule between that tour and the Challenge Tour all season.
“I think it is better to focus on one tour, whichever one that may be. There is no rush to be up at the top just yet. Hopefully, I will arrive more prepared for European Tour in 2016 after a top 15 on Challenge Tour, so this is definitely a year worth playing on Challenge Tour.”
Gros is joined by a host of French former multiple winners including Alexandre Kaleka, Franҫois Calmels and Edouard Dubois while their compatriot Joёl Stalter returns to the venue where he made his professional debut last year, as he attempts to kick-start his season.
Jordi Garcia Pinto, meanwhile, returns to defend his title and he is joined by fellow Spaniard Javier Ballesteros, son of one of European golf’s biggest superstars, the late, great Seve.
A hugely strong field includes all of the top five in the Road to Oman Rankings, while Jamie McLeary – winner of last week’s KPMG Trophy – arrives in buoyant mood after doubling his Challenge Tour title haul with a second career victory.
