A STAGE FOR FUTURE STARS
For many players, the European Challenge Tour is a springboard to a major career.
A STAGE FOR FUTURE STARS
Wild cards give the next generation of professional golfers the chance to make the leap into the international elite. These invitations are granted by the tournament organizer according to clearly-defined performance criteria.
European Challenge Tour as a career springboard
The list of well-known names of former European Challenge Tour participants is long. Martin Kaymer, Michael Campbell or Mathias Grönberg as well as Costantino Rocca, Sven Strüver and Ricardo Gonzalez are just a few of them. They all benefited from the Challenge Tour as a showcase for the future stars of top international golf to embark on a successful career. Since the first staging of the European Challenge Tour at Golf Sempach in 2010, the Swiss Challenge has been regarded as a hotbed of talent.
Players such as Tyrrell Hatton and Matteo Manassero have used the Swiss Challenge in the past as a springboard for a great international career. Tyrrell Hatton showed his enormous talent at the Swiss Challenge 2012 and left the European Challenge Tour in 2013 after finishing tenth in the Order of Merit. Since then, he has won six times on the European Tour, including four times at Rolex Series events. He was also a multiple winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship and part of the Ryder Cup teams in 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Wild Cards for Swiss Young Professionals
In a tournament field of the European Challenge Tour, besides the professionals qualified by their ranking, also players with a wild card start. At the Swiss Challenge, 35 wild cards will be awarded to foreign organizers. In return, the organizers receive the same number of invitations for tournaments in the respective countries. This gives Swiss players valuable starts at international tournaments. For them, a Wild Card is the chance to make the leap to the international top.
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