Provence. Hopps Open for Lucas Vacarisas



by ANDREA GUSSONI

Provence. Hopps Open for Lucas Vacarisas
Provence. Hopps Open for Lucas Vacarisas © Getty Images Sport - Valerio Pennicino / Stringer

The Spaniard Lucas Vacarisas won with 268 (68 69 64 67, -20) shots the Hopps Open de Provence, the penultimate tournament of the Challenge Tour before the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final (2-5 November, Mallorca, Spain) at which will be admitted to the first 45 classified in the Road To Mallorca (order of merit) who will compete for the twenty 'cards' up for grabs for the DP World Tour 2024.

Worth highlighting is the good performance of Francesco Laporta, the best of the Azzurri, fifth with 272 (67 64 69 72, -16).

Lucas Vacarisas, results

On the course of the Golf International de Pont Royal (par 72), in Mallemort in France, the Spaniard overtook the Frenchman Felix Mory and the Welshman Oliver Farr, second with 270 (-18) and his compatriot Manuel Elvira, fourth with 271 (- 17).

Also in the top ten, eighth with 275 (-13), is the other Italian Lorenzo Gagli who, thanks to a bogey free final round of 67 (-5), the result of five birdies, recovered 12th position. Francesco Laporta, leader in the two central rounds, was unable to express himself as he would have liked in the final round, losing three shots on the first six holes (a birdie, two bogeys, a double bogey) and then unable to recover despite having scored four birdies against one bogey the rest of the way (72, par).

However, it remains a good performance which allows the Apulian to recover six positions and return to the top 20 of the Road to Mallorca (19th). Of the other Italians, Lorenzo Scalise also won, 34th with 281 (-7), Filippo Celli, 41st with 283 (-5) and Aron Zemmer, 49th with 285 (-3).

They didn't make the cut: Enrico Di Nitto, 85th with 145 (+1) and Gregorio De Leo, 110th with 150 (+6). Vacarisas, a 25-year-old from Barcelona, obtained his first title on the circuit after winning the Alps de Andalucia in September 2020, the year in which he then obtained passage to the Challenge Tour with second place in the order of merit.

This season saw a fluctuating trend for the Iberian with a 4th place in the Challenge de España and some cuts not passed. For him a check for 40,000 euros out of a prize pool of 260,000.

Challenge Tour

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• Challenge Tour, final stages before Mallorca