19th February 2019 | Alps Tour Golf
Four players share the lead after 1st round of Ein Bay Open
At last, it’s tournament-time again on the Alps Tour, and players are showing all their eagerness to give their best on the course after a long winter break.
They couldn’t find better conditions than what they had here in Egypt at Sokhna Golf Club, where the Ein Bay Open has started with four players sharing the lead after the first round at 66 (minus 6). The sun and a little breeze coming up in the afternoon, together with perfect fairways and smooth greens, gave way to 60 scores under par – exactly half of the field of 120 competitors.
The best cards of the day were returned by Spaniard Gonzalo Vicente Elena (6 birdies for him and no bogeys) and Frenchmen Frederic Lacroix (1 eagle, 4 birdies and no bogeys), David Antonelli (8 birdies and 2 bogeys) and Teremoana Beaucousin (6 birdies and no bogey).
While Antonelli, 32 years old, and Vicente Elena, 34, can count on a long experience in the professional rankings, Beaucousin, 24, is one of the most brilliant « rising stars » having started his career on the Alps Tour only last season, finishing 10th in the 2018 Order of Merit with a second place in the Open de la Mirabelle d’Or, last June in France.
The real good surprise comes from rookie Frederic Lacroix (pictured), 23, who turned pro in January after wearing the French amateur team uniform for many years and finishing his studies at the University; he is playing his very first tournament for a prize money – 40.000 euros, and a cheque of 5.800 euros for the winner, but – he assures – there’s no more pression than competing as an amateur, « it is still the same game, you always want to play at your best ». And this is what he did today : « I made no mistakes, really; no bogeys, the putting was working, I could always find the fairways and hit some beautiful irons ; so it was really a nice start for my professional career ».
Behind the leaders, three players are tied in 5th position with a 67 (-5), Spaniard Javier Ballesteros, Austrian Felix Schulz and Frenchman Nicolas Platret.
Tomorrow, at the end of the second round, the best 40 professionals and ties will make the cut and will go on playing the third and final day of the tournament.
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5th February 2019 | Alps Tour Golf
New season, new challenges
A new season is starting and new challenges are awaiting the Alps Tour players, the « rising stars » of golf looking to climb all the steps that lead to Challenge Tour, European Tour and beyond.
And the premises for another brilliant year are all there: just think of the record number of entries received for the Qualifying School last December – 255 players – and the level of low scores recorded on challenging America & Asia courses at La Cala Resort, with Spaniard Angel Hidalgo totalling -14 to gain the final top spot. The trend is continuing with the first tournaments of 2019 and at two weeks before the start, the number of entries are exceeding the available spots, with a long waiting list.
There’s a lot of expectations to see who will be the next players following in the footsteps of some really talented players who have sharpened their skills on the Alps Tour : like Englishman Matt Wallace, 28, who only two seasons ago won six tournaments and the Order of Merit of the Alps Tour, gained access to the Challenge Tour the following year and soon progressed to the European Tour, where he won 3 tournaments in 2018 and ended the season on 10th position on the Race to Dubai, with nearly 2,9 millions euros of prize money.
The 2019 season will tee off in Egypt, as it has been the case since 2013, with the Ein Bay Open played from February 19-21 on beautiful Sokhna Golf Course (pictured, a view of the 13th hole, credit Tristan Jones Photography), followed by Red Sea Little Venice Open (February 25-27), on the same venue. The Egyptian « Winter Series » will go on with three tournaments played from March 25th to April 6th on three different courses near The Caire and the pyramids : Dreamland Pyramids Open on Dreamland GC, New Giza Open on New Giza Gc – a new spectacular venue inaugurated last October – and Katameya Dunes Open, on the Lakes Course of Katameya Dunes.
Italy will have the role of opening the season in Continental Europe, with traditional Abruzzo Open on Miglianico Golf moved from September to April 17-19, just before Easter. After that, Alps Tour will then get to the heart of the schedule with some exciting changes : we are pleased to welcome new venues in Italy like Acaya Resort near Lecce, and Golf Nazionale near Rome ; and we will return to Golf de Valdeluz in Spain, host of the Alps de Las Castillas again.
And, for the first time in Europe, we’re going to host a new format, a real mixed event co-sanctioned with the LET Access Series : the Saint-Malo Golf Open (4-7 July) will see ladies and men compete together for the same prize money.
One thing is not changing, and it is the enthusiasm and the commitment of an army of young golfers chasing their dream and looking for a promotion. A total of at least 18 tournaments during the year will bring the best 50 players in the Order of Merit to compete in the Grand Final, the last fight to gain one of the 5 spots at stake to be admitted in the Challenge Tour 2020.
Stay tuned ! www.wp-alpstour.ocs-sport.com and the app « Alps Tour Golf » (on the App Store for iOS devices and Play Store for Android) will keep you updated on every news about Alps Tour.
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10th February 2017 | Alps Tour Golf
Numbers, Facts and Figures
The 2017 Alps Tour season is about to be launched. Egypt has been the host of winter series for 5 seasons now and players are packing to travel in the very next days as Ein Bay Open starts next Tuesday.
The season 2016 was colored by an amazing rising star, England’s Matt Wallace, 6 time winner last year. But this was not the only figures worth being noticed.
The total amount of prize money in 2016 was 750 000 € and the average for a tournament was 44000 €, 10 % better than in 2014.
The best winning score was recorded by Matt Wallace during Gösser Open, He signed for -20 after 54 holes and recorded as well the biggest winning margin, 8 shots. The toughest course was the host of Open de Saint François Guadeloupe as Leo Lespinasse won with -6 total defeated David Morago after extra holes.
The average winning score in 2016 is the highest of 7 seasons : -13,94. It was -13,2 in 2010 when Matteo Delpodio won the order of merit.
Players have to be prepared to beat the courses to make the cut as 9 cuts out of 16 events (no cut during Grand Final) were at level par of better.
Finally, the average age of 2016 graduates is 24,8. Let’s beat the record in 2017!
24th April 2015 | Alps Tour Golf
WeForest supported by the Alps Tour
The Alps Tour sponsor of WeForest
Alps Tour is very proud to announce its partnership with WeForest. Created in Belgium by Bill Lao and Marie-Noëlle Keijzer in 2010, WeForest is an international non-profit association with following mission: create and promote a pioneer movement in large scale sustainable reforestation. It is running several projects in Asia, Africa and South America to cool the planet thanks to planting trees.
Research suggests that adding 20 million km2 of forest could create an additional 2% cloud coverage over the entire planet, buying us time on global warming.
Alps Tour players file a statistic card after each round. Since the beginning of the season, each card represents a tree offered to WeForest. The players have chosen to be part of the project in Brazil which is a nice link as well with Rio 2016, when golf will go back to the Olympics for the first time since 1900 in Paris.
The goal for 2015 is to plant 4000 trees thanks to players’ statistic cards.
WeForest is ambitious in Brazil and aims to connect isolated and often small forest patches to the remaining protected areas in the Pontal do Paranapanema region in the Western São Paulo State. The goal is to connect the Morro do Diablo State Park to the Iguaçu National Park, two core areas of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Rainforest Biodiversity Vision.
2nd March 2015 | Alps Tour Golf
Colombo back in business
Federico Colombo (c) Agathe Séron
Italy’s Federico Colombo produced great score today signing for 67, -5 at Dreamland Pyramids Open opening round.
Colombo is a former European Tour player. He managed to graduate to European Tour during Q School as he had just turned pro. After 3 years on Challenge Tour and 18 months on European Tour, the 27 year old player from Guissano is on Alps Tour to rebuild his swing and game.
“This is the beginning of the season. I have been working hard during the winter. I just wanted to see where was my game. The first two tournaments I did not play that well but I had good feelings. My putting was not the good but I liked the greens this week.”
“My game is getting better. I had good feeling today. At the beginning of the round I struggled a little but on the back nine I had a couple of good recoveries and I made a few good putts for birdies and especially at the end, I holed two birdies on the last two holes.”
Being asked about his feelings after loosing his card on Challenge Tour, the young man confessed.
“It was hard. I changed my coach and I started a completely new work middle of last year but all these things takes time to get better. The game is getting better as it was like 2 or 3 years ago. The problem was more the long game but at the end it was more psychologically.”
I did not come here with any expectation. I am still working a lot on my game and I am just trying to get my confidence back. I am not looking for good results or anything, but I know it is going to come.”
Colombo is not the only Italian players having done well today. A group of 4 players are only 2 shots back of the lead. Among them, England’s Liam Harper and Colombo’s compatriots Joon Kim, Federico Maccario and Luca Fenoglio.
From Cairo
Agathe Séron
17th May 2014 | Alps Tour Golf
Colli Berici 2014 – REPORT Final Day
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REPORT Final Day
| Alps Tour Golf
COLLI BERICI 2014 – Alexander Christie winner interview
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Alexander Christie winner interview
