Inaugural winner Kakko keeps National Bank of Oman Golf Classic in perspective

Roope Kakko

Muscat: The eagerly anticipated National Bank of Oman (NBO) Golf Classic gets underway on October 30 forming the third leg of the all-important Final Swing on the European Challenge Tour.

Players are not only competing for one of the most coveted titles on the Tour, a purse of $330,000 and an increased 13 world ranking points, they are also playing for a place in the top 45 on the Challenge Tour Rankings.

That will make them eligible for the season-ending Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia Golf Club. The top 15 on the rankings following the event in Dubai will gain their playing card for 2014-2015 season on the European Tour.

One man who knows all about the significance of the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic is the winner of last year's inaugural event, Roope Kakko of Finland, who won by two-strokes from Denmark's Lucas Bjerregaard.

"It was a huge victory for me because it guaranteed my place on the European Tour for 2014," he said. "It was also my first professional victory and it was nice to get that monkey off my back. Doing that in such an important moment was also very pleasing.

"Winning is always what we strive for but my victory in Oman meant so much more — my first professional win.

"Doing it at such a great challenging venue as Almouj Golf at The Wave, where I felt that whoever won truly deserved the victory was such a fulfilling feeling."

Last year marked the first time the Challenge Tour had stopped off in Oman and Kakko was extremely impressed by the maiden tournament.

"It was a great event," he said. "One of the best events, if not the best tournament of the year. It's a great venue, the players were really well taken care of and there were a good number of spectators. I really enjoyed everything about last year."

For now Kakko is focused on trying to retain his European Tour card for next season.

His best results this year have been a tied 10th at the Joburg Open and a tied 15th at the Made in Denmark tournament. He's currently outside the top 110 on the Race to Dubai required to keep his automatic playing privileges in the top tier of European golf and admits that the step up in standard on the European Tour is a significant one but that the Challenge Tour is the perfect preparation.

"It´s a great learning curve," he said. "Competition is very high and it´s very well organised on the European Tour. You always want to play golf at the highest level and the Challenge Tour really prepares you to do that with lots of traveling, good golf courses and really tough competition. It's the perfect education for the bigger stage in your career.

"My goal is to play well enough to finish inside 110 to keep my card. Then hopefully next year I can set myself a little bit higher goals and slowly but steadily get better," he added.

And while Kakko admits that the courses on the European Tour are generally tougher than those on the Challenge Tour one venue breaks the mould — Almouj Golf in Muscat.

"Oman is a little different. Almouj Golf would easily qualify as a European Tour course," the NBO Golf Classic defending champions said with a smile.