Our man at the course, Matt Cooper, with his daily diary from this week's Challenge Tour Grand Final in Italy.
Matt Cooper reports from this week's Challenge Tour Grand Final
How does the Grand Final work?
Imagine if the FedEx Cup was any good. Okay, that's a bit unfair - the two have very different aims. But in one sense it is true - the Grand Final works brilliantly as seasonal climax in a way that the FedEx Cup can only dream of.
The main reason is that there is more than one narrative and more than just the one winner - there is not merely the tournament itself but 20 European Tour cards on offer. Perhaps it is also easier to appreciate the disappointment and thrill those players are experiencing (watching one man walk off with $11million, on the other hand, seems a little unreal and, well, obscene).
Where is it played?
We're in Apulia in Italy. If you don't know where that is (and the chances are you don't), think of Italy as a high-heeled boot. Then think of Apulia as the high-heel.
San Domenico GC is a European Golf Design track, described as a "Mediterranean links course", and it is hosting the Grand Final for the seventh time. Just yards from the Adriatic Coast it is often battered by warm winds and it utilises sweeping swales and humps to create a links-like effect. That said, the Bermuda grass element throws up a different challenge to a classic links course - the rough is tangly, gripping and sometimes difficult to move the ball from.
Although the rough and fairways are Bermuda grass, the greens are bent grass and, to counter that wind, normally run at about 9.5 on the stimpmeter (today wasn't windy so the greens appeared slow to the players). The course is attached to the Borgo Egnazia Hotel, a remarkable five star establishment that for one week every November has about 45 players, 45 caddies and assorted media people wandering around in a daze, wondering if the inspiration is spaghetti westerns, Biblical towns, Maltese monasteries or something more bizarre entirely. It is wonderfully lavish and a little bit mad (in a very good way).
The stars of the 2011 Challenge Tour season so far
There have been two - France's Benjamin Hebert and England's Sam Little.
Hebert took top billing early in the season by virtue of the three wins (the Credit Suisse Challenge, English Challenge and Rolex Trophy) that earned him Battlefield Promotion to the European Tour. The first and second of those wins came back-to-back and all three wins came in the space of just five starts.
That doesn't happen often but, coincidentally, Little ended the season doing exactly the same thing. His first title came in the M2M Russian Challenge Cup and he maintained the form to triumph in the ALLIANZ Golf Open in Toulouse the following week. He then completed a popular hat-trick with victory in the Roma Open two weeks ago.
The other name to watch is Tommy Fleetwood who has won just the once but is second in the money list behind Little and is fulfilling the many expectations of him when he turned pro. Just 20-years-old, he was second in the 2010 English Challenge whilst still an amateur and in the 23 starts on this tour since he has made the top thirty 16 times, including a maiden win in Kazakhstan.
Future stars?
The real reason to take so much notice of this event and the conclusion of every Challenge Tour season is that the graduates often go on to greater things. Although it is a slightly manipulated stat, it is still true that seven of the last eight major champions have finished in the top 12 of a Challenge
