Andrew's Swiss Challenge (HPT) Preview

We didn’t get much back from last week on the Hotel Planner Tour, but I couldn’t have found the winner at any price. I do keep an eye on the Alps Tour and of course there are players at any level who can win, but Rocco Repetto Taylor doesn’t have a data golf page, and is was making just his second HPT start, having failed in first stage qualifying last year. Impressive, but confounding. I’m hoping for more predictable results this week. It is also another week that shows the value of playing events near home, with a Spanish-dominated leaderboard – just as the German players dominated an event just over the Austrian border last week on the DPWT. I’ve been talking about this for years but Ben Coley nailed the importance of it on this week’s Sliced podcast if you haven’t yet listened. 

The Tournament

This week’s Swiss Challenge takes place in Switzerland. I know that I’ve just made myself sound like an absolute imbecile, but for the last few years it hasn’t - they've been just over the border in France. We've also returned to the current early June date, having been much later in the season for the last few years. This course, Golf Sempach, hosted the event for a decade until 2019. That year, Ricardo Santos won ahead of a player who was clearly coming to the end of a career mostly at European/DPWT level and winding down towards a journeyman’s retirement. Whatever happened to Richard Bland? Anyway, the winning score was -15 and the course is basically unchanged since, it is a 7,161 yard par 71, and being housed just outside Lucerne is at a bit of altitude and so plays slightly shorter. There’s nothing particularly special about this course – accuracy and putting will be key. We’re expecting small amounts of rain on Thursday and Sunday, warmer days on Friday and Saturday, and not much wind.

We have a surprisingly strong field for this. There are a few strong Sunshine Tour players (Johan Rebula, Nikhil Rama) joining a group of Swiss stars on the invited list, which isn’t very unusual. The presence of Taichi Kho, stalwart of the Asian Tour and making, I believe, his first HPT start (he’s played a few DPWT events, including one in Europe) is more surprising. So too is Kalle Samooja, a winner on the DPWT as recently as 2022 before an abortive effort to play on LIV. He actually made his first start last week, which I missed – he was cut from the Challenge de Cadiz.

Selections

As I’ve said, and many others have said, local knowledge a supportive crowd, and home comforts matter on this tour. First onto the team sheet is indeed a local player, Benjamin Rusch. The Swiss veteran has been held back by his iron play throughout his career but there have been signs of real quality this season. In three starts he’s finished fifth and 14th, at the Challenge de Espana and Challenge de Cadiz, and unlike many of these he’s got extensive course experience, including playing in this tournament here on several occasions (with four finishes in the top 25.) I think the combination of local knowledge and current form is powerful and he’s a straightforward pick at the top of my list.

The next man on my list is Jovan Rebula. The Sunshine Tour regular is one of my favourite players and has been in career defining form recently, finishing fourth on this tour down in Cape Town and on the DPWT in Mauritius. Mostly recently, he was ninth in the Kit Kat Cash and Carry on the Sunshine Tour. As well as playing well he’s perfect for this test, as a shorter hitting player than many but with a great iron game and one of the best putters on the Sunshine Tour. Yes, he’s a long way from home but this will feel a lot like a Cape Town test and I think he’s primed for a breakthrough.

My final pick could well have been Dan Erickson, but he’s not attending, which made it easier to select a man I was desperate to take a swing on, Hayden Hopewell.  The young Aussie is on his second year on the HPT and last year (albeit at a different venue) his best result came in the Swiss Challenge. This sort of second shot challenge is ideal for him, and it is notable that he’s not done better this year than his seventh at the classical Kolkata Challenge. There are, in truth, a lot of plyers like Hopewell on this tour – I have absolutely no doubt in his talent, and no doubt that he’s going to break out and win at some point soon. Finding the right week to back them is the difficulty, but the course fit and the price make me hopeful that we’ll see some real value this week.

This has been posted early (because, life) so only Bet365 were available. It is possible that better odds will emerge.

• Benjamin Rusch, 40/1, 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365.

• Jovan Rebula, 66/1, 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365.

• Hayden Hopewell, 250/1, 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365.