{"id":101947,"date":"2026-08-02T13:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T10:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/?p=101947"},"modified":"2026-08-11T15:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:04:20","slug":"the-infortar-estonian-challenge-is-over-a-surprise-victory-for-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/the-infortar-estonian-challenge-is-over-a-surprise-victory-for-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"The Infortar Estonian Challenge is over, a surprise victory for Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Played for the first time in Estonia, at Estonian Golf &amp; Country Club in J\u00f5el\u00e4htme, the high-level golf tournament was won by tour debutant Rory Franssen.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old Scot won three events on his home Tartan Pro Tour last season, earning playing rights on the HotelPlanner Tour. His first 11 starts on the tour had brought little success. His best finish came in France in early July, where he tied for 50th. His total career earnings on the tour had amounted to just \u20ac4,000.<\/p>\n<p>And then, in Estonia, a miracle happened. Franssen\u2019s opening-round 3-under 69 did not suggest anything extraordinary was about to happen. Friday\u2019s 67, however, was much more promising. Franssen began Saturday with back-to-back birdies, moved into the top three and was already sharing the lead midway through the day. By Saturday evening, Franssen was in second place, and even on Sunday he could not enjoy the outright lead for long, spending most of the day two shots behind leader Andrew Wilson.<\/p>\n<p>In the second half of Sunday, Wilson was unable to hold on to the lead. Birdies on the 11th and 12th holes moved the Scot into a share of first place. A birdie on the 16th and an Englishman\u2019s bogey on the following hole ultimately decided the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>First place and \u20ac48,000 went to Franssen. Andrew Wilson finished second, while Germany\u2019s Michael Hirmer and England\u2019s David Horsey shared third, eventually finishing four shots behind the winner. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europeantour.com\/hotelplanner-tour\/infortar-estonian-challenge-2026\/results?round=4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Results<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-youtube su-u-responsive-media-yes\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"360\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1cg81h441JU?\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture\" title=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Franssen did not hide the fact in his post-tournament interview that he could hardly believe what had happened.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-101236 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-69-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1676\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-69-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-69-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-69-1024x671.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-69-768x503.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-69-1536x1006.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-69-2048x1341.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Three Estonians made history for Estonian golf at this tournament. Markus Varjun, who turned professional in mid-July, Kevin Christopher Jegers and Ralf Johan Kivi all made the cut at a professional tournament for the first time. As a result, they earned their first-ever OWGR points (their positions in the new world ranking will be confirmed on Monday), their first career prize money and, most importantly, valuable season points in the HPT series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Although Saturday evening\u2019s leaderboard suggested that the Estonians, particularly Varjun and Jegers, were within reach of a very high finish, with a top-10 result even being a possibility for Varjun, the fierce competition and challenging weather conditions, combined with the experience of playing at this level for the first time, ultimately brought expectations back down to earth.<\/p>\n<p>Varjun finished the tournament at -7, sharing 31st place. This earned him 15.2 world ranking points and \u20ac2,550 in prize money.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-101232 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-26-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-26-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-26-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-26-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-26-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-26-1536x959.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hotellplannertour_infotar_estonian_Challange_D4-26-2048x1279.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Jegers and Kivi both finished at -2, sharing 57th place, earning \u20ac960 and 6.4 world ranking points each. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europeantour.com\/hotelplanner-tour\/rankings\/overview\/rankings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Season Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The HPT series continues next week with the Scottish Challenge, where Carl Hellat, Kevin Christopher Jegers and Markus Varjun will represent Estonia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The series continues in August with events in Ireland, Finland and Sweden. In September, tournaments will be played in Poland, England and Portugal, followed by events in the UAE and China in October, before the HPT season-ending finale on the island of Mallorca.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The Infortar Estonian Challenge will return next year.<\/p>\n<p>View photos: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/meedia\/fotod\/2026-fotod\/nggallery\/album\/infortar-estonian-challenge-1-paev-raul-mee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Day 1<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/meedia\/fotod\/2026-fotod\/nggallery\/album\/infortar-estonian-challenge-2-paev-raul-mee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Day 2<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/meedia\/fotod\/2026-fotod\/nggallery\/album\/infortar-estonian-challenge-3-paev-raul-mee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Day 3<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/meedia\/fotod\/2026-fotod\/nggallery\/album\/infortar-estonian-challenge-4-paev-raul-mee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Day 4<\/a> (Raul Mee)<\/p>\n<p>ETV Sport news:<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative; width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: none;\" src=\"\/\/services.err.ee\/media\/embed\/fd8ee77de3f3452f3a3ddf93db80edde\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Played for the first time in Estonia, at Estonian Golf &amp; Country Club in J\u00f5el\u00e4htme, the high-level golf tournament was won by tour debutant Rory Franssen. The 27-year-old Scot won&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":101235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-101947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eng","tag-national-team"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101958,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101947\/revisions\/101958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}