Andrew's D+D REAL Czech Challenge Preview

Last week on the HotelPlanner Tour was another tough one, with all three of my players showing a few holes of excellence, but just Nick Carlson making the cut and him not threatening a win. There’s been times when I’ve said “it is hard to find a winner on this tour” but you can’t say that about Max Steinlechner, by far the pick of the home players, he was already highly-ranked in the Road to Majorca (and is now a certainty to return to the DPWT next year), had finished 22nd in the Austrian Open on the DPWT and had won in South Africa at the start of the season. Needless to say, I’m kicking myself. Let’s hope we don’t see an easy one go by again this week.

The Tournament

The good news is, I don’t think we’ll see a home winner this time as we’re in Czechia for the second event of the summer. Filip Mruzek is probably the pick of the home challenge and was fourth at Raffeisenbank (the first of the two Czechia events) but he’s at his best on longer courses. The bad news is, this is another very short course and it is hard to narrow the field down. I heard Ben Coley describe this as a “pitch and putt” course on Sliced Podcast and now I can’t think of it any other way. It is going to be tough to find a winner, no question.

The “pitch and putt” event is at Royal Beroun Golf Club. Beroun is a well-to-do little town to the south-east of Prague and this is an event the players seem to talk about positively. They’ve been playing it since 2012 but came to this course for the first time last year. On the debut performance Ben Follett-Smith put in a winning performance with a farcical 252 (-28). Yes, I am checking the numbers and these aren’t typos.

We’ve got a strong field this week as few players are invited over for the ISCO and clearly the Scottish Open has few openings, so most of the top HPT players are here. It is hard to say what we’re looking for – although Follet-Smith’s win didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, he didn’t win a DPWT card through the Road to Majorca and needed to go to Q-school despite his win, putting the rest of his season into context. Neither he nor runners-up Maxense Giboudot or Oliver Lindell were easy to find. One possible link is that Follett-Smith shared some links skills with a number of players in the top ten (Sam Hutsby, Jonathan Goth-Rasmussen, Calum Fyfe) though whether that is coincidental remains to be seen. Althoug there is some water and some tree cover this is primarily an exposed and undulating course and heavily bunkered, so you can see the parallels.

I’m focusing on players who’ve shown excellent with approach and putting and have decent regional form and recent form. I’m also keeping stakes small and being careful – I can’t think of a result that would truly shock me this week. Even the bombers (Wilco Neinaber plays) have a potential advantage on some drivable holes. There’s not enough wind for it to be a factor though Thursday will be the “toughest” day. https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/beroun

Selections

With all of those caveats, I’m picking a pair of Spaniards who I think will enjoy this challenge. Adri Arnaus was 12th in the Czech Masters last year on a course that was far too long for him, which was also true of the previous course when he was second in 2019. At his best he’s a masterful putter and he’s comfortable scoring heavily. After being off form for a number of weeks he returned with a T28 in Interwetten last week and can bounce from that in a country where he’s enjoyed immense success. This DPWT regular is 49 th on the Road to Majorca and running out of chances to win back his card.

You’ll be sick of me talking about his compatriot, Albert Boneta but I continue to believe that his maiden win on this tour is just around the corner. He was seventh last year very soon after turning professional and he’s enjoyed an intermittently successful first season as a professional. His 41st in the Italian Open recently was highliget by excellent putting and scrambling, as was his 22nd in Austria. His win on the Alps Tour last year was at -25 (in three rounds) on a short par 72 (6,452 yards) ahead of Max Steinlechner. There’s a lot of parallels here.

Finally, Ben Stow showed his liking for this sort of course when finishing 10th last week. He won the Prague Golf Challenge in 2018 and in a handful of DPWT starts this veteran has some excellent results on short courses (25th in Kenya, tenth in British Masters at Close Hall) and on links courses (14th in the Irish Open at Galgorm Castle, 16th in the Scottish Championship. As an amateur, he won qualification to the Muirfield Open. His hasn’t been a textbook or straightforward career – he was stricken with serious knee trouble, among other forks in the road - but we know that he likes the area, the length of course, the type of course, and we know he’s in good form. At his price, that’s enough for me.

• Albert Boneta, 40/1, 1pt e/w, 1/5 odds 6 places, Sporting Index.

• Ben Stow, 175/1, 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365.

• Adri Arnaus, 85/1, 1pt e/w, 1/5 odds 6 places, Sporting Index.