WITH two wins on the Challenge Tour last year big things are expected of softly spoken Frenchman Sebastien Gros. The 26-year-old only turned professional in 2011 and he’s now enjoying his first season on The European Tour after his graduation. Worldwide Golf caught up with the affable rookie as he prepared for his debut in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic last month.
“It’s been a crazy start to life on The European Tour for me,” smiles the laid-back Gros on the driving range at Emirates Golf Club. “The tournaments in South Africa at the start the season were perfect and then the three in a row in the Desert Swing are wonderful events and I’ve been really enjoying it – and if you’re not playing well you can have a nice weekend off!”
Gros will need his happy-go-lucky approach to life on the top tier if he is to maintain his card for next year as his results have been mixed so far. In his first event he finished fourth at the Alfred Dunhill Championship after a sensational third round 63 at Leopard Creek. However, he didn’t make the weekend on the Desert Swing events, despite encouraging second rounds of 68 in Qatar and 69 in Dubai.
“The main difference between the Challenge Tour and The European Tour is the courses,” he says. “They are prepared to another level that we are not used to on the Challenge Tour. There are maybe two or three tournaments that were set up like European Tour ones, but so far this season I haven’t produced my ‘A’ game so it’s tough to compare when you’re not playing that well.
“One thing that’s noticeable is that the players are undesrstandably better than on the Challenge Tour. I think when great players who graduate from the Challenge Tour have a great week – like I did at Leopard Creek and the likes of Brandon Stone and Haydn Porteous winning two events in South Africa – these things highlight that the Challenge Tour players are not that far from the level of The European Tour.
“The standard of organisation and the courses on the Challenge Tour are getting closer to the levels set by The European Tour. It’s getting to the stage where the bigger events on the Challenge Tour are starting to look like a main Tour event.
“For example, when you see the big grandstands around the greens in Foshan in China and the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final in Oman, it’s showing us how the main Tour is.
Impressive
“Having said that, when you get here, you see that The European Tour is very impressive – the facilities are at the next level. This can upset your focus a little, but you’ve just got to remember, it’s still only a game of golf, it’s still 18 holes every day.”
Gros collected 73,650 Race to Dubai points for his fourth place finish at Leopard Creek and while he currently sits in 52nd place on The Race at the time of writing he will need a few more top fives as the season progresses if he is to maintain his position.
“I’m not really a goals kind of guy. I feel that if you reach you goals it can limit you in some way,” he says. “I’m just trying to improve every day – that’s something that I’ve found is good for me. You can always say that for someone who has graduated from the Challenge to The European Tour his goal is to keep his card. I just want to play well. Then getting into the top 60 and the Final Series will follow. If I have many weeks where I have four good rounds, I’ll be very happy.”
Capacity
Gros certainly has the capacity to put four good rounds together. On last year’s Challenge Tour he won the Najeti Open Presented by Neuflize OBC in his homeland with rounds of 68-66-67-69 and his second title came courtesy of a 68-67-70-69 scorecard at the Kazakhstan Open.
That second title confirmed his status as a European Tour player for 2016 and after seeing out the season in second place on the Road to Oman he’s keen to enjoy life on the elite stage.
“Places like Dubai are amazing,” says Gros. “Emirates Golf Club is amazing – and I must have used that word about 50 times when I played the course in practice. If the rest of the places we go on Tour are this good then it’s going to be a fun year.”
