CUMBERWELL Park will host an event on European golf’s third-tier tour for the fourth year in succession with the return of the GRENKE Championship later this summer.

The Bradford on Avon course will welcome some of the country’s golfing prospects for the three-day tournament from June 28-30, having become an established fixture in the Tour calendar.

The EuroPro Tour has been a stepping stone for golfers towards the second-tier Challenge Tour and top-flight European Tour, with the 2015 Order of Merit being won by Wiltshire golfer Jordan Smith, from Derry Hill, who subsequently won the Challenge Tour’s order of merit last year to earn a 2017 European Tour card.

As the HotelPlanner.com Championship, the tournament was first played at Cumberwell in 2014 and was won by Surrey player Stiggy Hodgson.

Yorkshire’s Marcus Armitage won the 2015 incarnation, the GRENKE Championship, edging out Cumberwell Park’s own Steve Surry by a single shot before last year former European Tour player Stephen Dodd lifted the £10,000 first prize, defeating Adam Hodkinson on the first hole of a play-off.

After a qualifying school in March and April, the 15-tournament Tour gets under way in late April.

Meanwhile, Cumberwell Park’s Laurie Canter will play his first European Tour event of 2017 at the SA Open in Gauteng next week.

Canter reclaimed his 2017 European Tour card by coming through qualifying school for the second successive year in November.

Clubmate Steve Surry is also returning to South Africa this week to take part in qualifying and Sunshine Tour events.