Gregorio de Leo is targeting a maiden Challenge Tour win when he tees it up on home soil this week in the Italian Challenge Open at Argentario Golf Club.
The 24-year-old has climbed to 35th in the Road to Mallorca Rankings after a string of impressive displays, including two top five finishes in back-to-back weeks to kick-start September.
De Leo arrives in Tuscany looking to continue that trend, with a win high on his list of priorities in front of friends, family and home fans.
“It’s amazing to be back home after a lot of tournaments in a row,” he said. “When you’re playing at home, it’s always good.
“I hope to win one tournament, that’s the only part that’s missing this season. I came close in the last three events so I’m playing really solid right now.
“The goal at the beginning of the season was to be in the top 20 at the end of the season to get my card for the DP World Tour, and a win would help me do that.
“I struggled a little bit at the beginning of the year in South Africa, India and Abu Dhabi, but then when we got back to playing in Europe my game became better and better each week, so the goal remains the same and I can now say I’m close to it.”
De Leo, who graduated to the Challenge Tour from the Alps Tour in 2022 after winning three times in a single season, believes he is beginning to reap the rewards of working hard during the off-season after finishing 72nd in the Rankings 12 months ago.
“The fact that I was training a lot during the winter and during this season, I think that was really helpful,” he added. “The scores didn’t come at the beginning of the year but this last part of the season, it’s really paying off.
“This week, hopefully that work keeps paying off as the course is going to be tricky with the amount of wind, so finding fairways will be important, and the par fives will be key.”
De Leo is part of a strong field in Italy that includes Road to Mallorca Number Two John Parry from England, five-time DP World Tour winner Alexander Levy from France, and Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard, who has triumphed twice on golf’s Global Tour.
Round one gets under way at 7:30am local time, with De Leo teeing off alongside Bjerregaard and Swede Joakim Lagergren at 1:20pm.
