Joël Girrbach places 10th in Denmark
16.08.2021
"On the one hand I'm happy about the top-10 result, of course, but on the other hand I'm annoyed that I'm not at the top of the rankings," said Joel Girrbach on Saturday afternoon after the end of the Made in Esbjerg Challenge, which was endowed with 200,000 euros. "There definitely could have been more in the final two rounds - on Friday as well as on Saturday I made a 'stupid' bogey on each of the last holes," explains the player from Thurgau. The par-71 course of the Esbjerg Golf Club is located on the Danish west coast; it is not a classic links course, the course is planted with numerous conifers, yet the holes are lined with high, shaggy rough. Combined with the strong coastal winds, this presented the Challenge Tour players with major challenges this week. "It was very windy over the weekend and therefore very tough to play," says Girrbach. "On the back nine, the wind is always blowing from the side, which makes club selection difficult and it's hard to calculate the ball flight."
With two solid rounds of 70 strokes on the first two days, the 28-year-old had no problem making the cut. Even then, more would have been possible: "In both rounds, I had an unbelievable number of putts that stayed too short on the line or then lipped out," explained Girrbach. With a card of 69 (2 under par) - including an eagle on hole 14 (par 5) - on the moving day, he moved up to 10th place before the final round. With a 72 on the very windy final day and an overall score of 3 under par, Joel Girrbach defended this position in the final ranking. The tournament was won by the Portuguese Ricardo Gouveia with a total score of 8 under par.
Other Swiss players fail to make the cut
The other Swiss players in the field were unable to cope with the conditions on the Danish coast this week - and luck was not on their side either. Girrbach's club colleague Benjamin Rusch had arrived with a training deficit - "last week I suddenly felt a stabbing pain during weight training on Monday, which subsequently prevented me from practising golf for over a week" - and clearly missed the cut of 1 over par with rounds of 74 and 72 strokes (4 over par). It was closer for Raphaël de Sousa. The Geneva native had started the tournament with a card of 73 and showed a fighting chase on day 2, but the par round on the second day was not enough by one stroke to make it into the weekend.
Jeremy Freiburghaus and Mathias Eggenberger, on the other hand, failed more clearly. Freiburghaus, who had recorded his best result on this tour so far with a 10th place last Sunday in Finland, was literally "blown away by the wind" this week in Denmark. With rounds of 79 and 73 (10 over par), he and Eggenberger (72 and 80 strokes) finished at the back of the field. "We'll play again next week on this course - then I'll do better," Eggenberger promised on Thursday evening. The sixth Swiss at this tournament, Sasha Wortelboer also missed the cut by a wide margin with a total score of 146 strokes (4 over par).
As already mentioned by Mathias Eggenberger, the Challenge Tour remains in Denmark for one more tournament. On Tuesday, 17 August, the Sydbank Esbjerg Challenge, also endowed with 200,000 euros, starts on the same course. Joel Girrbach is confident: "I have a pretty good feeling here on the course and hope that I can step it up next week."
Article retrieved from www.swissgolf.ch
