Joël

Stalter

The Frenchman, a Cali Bear product, was highly touted when he turned pro and yet has taken time to make any headway on the European scene, eventually graduating from the Challenge Tour at the end of last season. But his start to the new season has been strong, going 4-for-4 with T7 in the South African Open and T14 in the Hong Kong Open the highlights. Key to his success has been his long game. In three of those starts he has ranked top five for Ball Striking (and never worse than 14th), plus he’s ranked top six or better for Total Driving three times (worst effort 11th). Ironically his worst performance tee to green came in South Africa, but his putting made up for it that week.

The Frenchman opened his 2017 season in fine style, with T14 in the Hong Kong Open and T7 in the South African Open. But he arrived off a run of 1-for-8, in which time he had posted only two sub-70 rounds and was in the habit of putting himself under pressure after 18 holes (only twice inside the top 50 at that stage). Starting from the 10th tee this week he opened with five straight pars before ticking 15 and 16, then giving one of the shots back at 17. But he circled 1, 3 and 7 on the front nine to find himself T6 on the live leaderboard and with the opportunity to play with more freedom on Friday.

The Frenchman has never held the lead (or shared it) on the European Tour, but then he has never, either, opened a Tour event with two sub-70 laps. Clearly he has taken to the challenge at Golfclub Munchen Eichenried, but he is also riding a little wave of form, having qualified for the U.S. Open and opened the Lyoness Open with a 68 for T5. He’ll need to maintain the pace over the weekend, however. On Friday there were three front nine birdies at 1, 4 and 6, with dropped shots at 3 and 5. On the back nine there were three red numbers in four holes at 13, 15 and 16. He’ll play Saturday with fellow non-winner Joakim Lagergren, hunted down by Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia, who are a shot back.

The 24-year-old Frenchman, who graduated from the Challenge Tour last season, started his rookie campaign in positive fashion with a trio of top 25s, including T7 at the BMW South African Open. His progress stalled through February and March as he missed four cuts out of four but, despite an opening 76, Stalter battled away to post T19 in Morocco. A winner of the second tier’s Swedish Challenge last year, this is his first start in Portugal since he missed the cut in the 2015 Madeira Island Open.

Paradoxically it might be. Although it might just as easily be the last thing he needs. Whatever, given his form since the early weeks of the season his success in progressing from the Sectional Qualifier at Walton Heath was in itself something of a boost to his confidence and reaped some reward on the European Tour. Before it he was on a run of 2-for-7, after he did miss the cut in the Nordea Masters but then last week hit a first round 68 for T5 in Vienna (he ended the week T34). He does have four top 25 finishes this season, but three came in his first three starts. Ranked 37th for Greens in Regulation, but just 158th for Putts per Round. A keen magician he might need to pull a rabbit from the hat this week.

Playing in the first group of the day from Golfclub München Eichenried’s 10th tee, the Frenchman opened with a run of eight pars. A birdie at the par-5 18th proved the catalyst for a surge up the leaderboard and he added red numbers at 1, 5 and 6 before a walk-off circle at 9. World No. 357 Stalter was T7 at the South African Open in January but has missed eight of his last 10 cuts. He did start brightly with a 68 in the Lyoness Open two weeks ago before fading to T34 and then shot 77-72 at Erin Hills. He’ll look to make a better job of cashing in on this good opener.

The Frenchman dropped one spot on the leaderboard, but will consider the lap acceptable after a few stumbles. Early on he had moved in the right direction, circling 2 and 6, but he then hit a flat patch which was marred by bogeys at 9 and 13 (a hole he had birdied in the first two rounds). On the brink of slipping back into the pack he shook himself down to tick 15 and 17 on his way back to the clubhouse, giving himself the opportunity of a career-changing result in the final round. At 157th on the Race to Dubai he clearly needs a good result. He has little comparable experience. He was a winner on the Challenge Tour last year, but came from T8 at 54 holes. He was once T2 after three rounds at that level, but crashed to 74 and T15. He was also T5 after 54 holes of this year’s South African Open and ended T7, then T1 after 36 holes of the BMW International Open before finishing T51.

The afternoon wave from Thursday afternoon got a break with their rounds carried over to Friday morning’s far better conditions following dreadful weather the day before which caused play to be called early. Stalter sprinted to the turn in just 30 blows after red circles at 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9. His burst hit a real bump with double bogey-6 at 11 but he responded with par breakers at 13, 16 and 18 to claim first-round honors. Round two actually started before Stalter had finished up and he’s since been joined at 6-under by Heisele, who birdied the opening hole. This is Stalter’s debut in the event and he’d arrived in the Netherlands having missed five of his previous six cuts. He’s currently 157th on the Race to Dubai.

The Frenchman was one of the last players to finish off his delayed first round this morning, taking the lead with a 65. Starting his second lap soon after, he took a backward step early with bogeys in two of his first three holes (10 and 12) but quickly got pointing in the right direction again with birdies at 13 and 15. He made it four red circles in the space of six holes with gains at 17 and 18 before ticking 2 and 4 on his second nine. Five closing pars were enough to keep the World No. 411 a shot clear of Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat and two in front of Germany’s Sebastian Heisele. Whether he’ll lead after 36 holes is another matter though with half the field still to complete their second rounds. Right now, he’s four clear of anyone out on the course but the damp conditions have made birdies easy to come by.

The Cal Bear product spends most of his time on the Challenge Tour across the pond. Over the last two years he’s collected a trio of top 15s there, while missing the cut in 11 (of 32) starts. Playing via sponsor exemption this week, don’t expect to see a lot of Stalter this season, unless he sneaks into contention here at Pebble Beach. Gamers should keep a close eye on the Frenchman but hold off on rostering until he shows some success on the PGA TOUR.