Challenge Tour - Jeremy Freiburghaus third in Spain
18.10.2021
At the Emporadà Challenge in Girona, three Swiss professionals finish in the prize money. Jeremy Freiburghaus from Graubünden achieves his best result on the Challenge Tour so far with third place. Joel Girrbach and Benjamin Rusch from Thurgau finish the tournament in 44th place (Girrbach) and 51st place (Rusch).
The Challenge Tour is in Catalonia for a two-week stay. More precisely: at the Emporadà Golf Club, which is located east of Girona not far from the Mediterranean coast and has two 18-hole championship courses. The Emporadà Challenge, endowed with 200,000 euros, was played on the Emporadà Links Course - 6304 metres long, par 71 - from 14 to 17 October. A classic links course with dunes, water hazards and numerous (pot) bunkers. Three Swiss players entered the tournament and all three made the cut, which was three under par on Friday evening. The very low winner's score also shows how high the level was at this tournament: Frenchman Julien Brun celebrated his second victory of the season (after the Open de Bretagne at the end of June) with 18 under par. Only two strokes behind him was the best Swiss: Jeremy Freiburghaus finished the tournament in third place! Between him and Brun on the final day was the Englishman Jonathan Thomson, who was able to sign a 62 on Sunday.
Jeremy Freiburghaus on the podium for the first time
Jeremy Freiburghaus from Graubünden started the tournament well with a round of 66 on Thursday and was in sixth place on the first evening. With 70 strokes on Friday, he easily made the cut in 14th place. On the "moving day", the 25-year-old then really turned up the heat, played another 66 (with six birdies) and remained bogey-free on the back nine. On the final day, the same score with six birdies and a bogey-free back nine. The total score of 268 strokes - 16 under par - earned the man from Graubünden his first podium finish on the Challenge Tour. This makes him feel jubilant: "Of course, I'm incredibly happy. This result secures my ticket for next year," he explained on Sunday evening. His goal is to get into the top 45 of the annual ranking "Road to Mallorca". The chances are good, because with the third place in Spain, Freiburghaus has gained 22 places in the annual ranking and is currently in 55th place. And: the next tournament, the Challenge Costa Brava, which starts on Tuesday, will be played on the same course. The man from Graubünden is confident: "My game is very good in all areas at the moment." On Friday, he had a little trouble with his putting, but was able to correct that with a practice session. "That helped me a lot at the weekend." He achieved his best result on the Challenge Tour so far at the right moment, he said. "I couldn't be happier," said the man from Graubünden after his podium finish.
Girrbach and Rusch also make the cut
The other two Swiss players in the field did not fare quite as well. Although Joel Girrbach and Benjamin Rusch also qualified for the final rounds and thus made it into the prize money, it was not quite enough for the two Thurgauers to make it to the top, and both lost a minimal amount of ground in the annual rankings. Girrbach had exactly made the cut with rounds of 69 and 70 strokes on the first two days. On Friday evening he shared the 44th intermediate rank with 17 other players, then on Sunday evening with only two. Another card of 70 on Saturday and a 68 on the final day - Girrbach stayed bogey-free for 13 holes on Sunday and played five birdies - meant seven under par for the tournament. "My game was actually quite good. Unfortunately, I made a few too many mistakes over the four days," said the 28-year-old. "From a feeling point of view, I was close to being among the front runners. There is not much missing." Unfortunately, the 44th place in Girona was not enough to defend the 72nd position in the annual ranking, Girrbach slips to 74th in the Order of Merit.
His club colleague Benjamin Rusch also did not fare quite as well as he would have liked. Having started the tournament solidly with a round of 70, the 32-year-old turned up the heat on the second day, staying bogey-free over 18 holes and recording four birdies for a card of 67, which put him in 22nd place at the halfway point. A 73 on the "moving day" then unfortunately threw him back. On the final day, Rusch got off to a lightning start with birdies on holes 1 and 2, remained bogey-free for twelve holes and was finally able to work his way up to 51st place with a round of 69. Nevertheless, he lost one place in the annual ranking and is now in 63rd place.
Article retrieved from www.swissgolf.ch
