Ryan Fox and Espen Kofstad
arrived at Golf Club de Genève for the Rolex Trophy after enjoying the
once-in-a-lifetime experience of representing their countries at the Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro.

New Zealand’s Fox and
Norwegian Kofstad both earned qualification in dramatic fashion at the D+D REAL
Slovakia Challenge in July – won by Kofstad in a play-off – and they flew to
Switzerland still in awe of their week as Olympians.

"It was unbelievable," said
Fox. "Words can’t really describe it, it was just something I’ll never forget
and the best week of my career.

"It was one of those where
it was a little bit of an unknown going out there for everyone from the golf
side of things and it was even better than I could have imagined – being part
of that environment and being part of the New Zealand team was just fantastic.

"It was a privilege and an
honour to represent my country, and to be one of the first three golfers to
represent New Zealand at the Olympics was very, very special.

"We don’t get to represent
our countries very often in golf. Even though I’ve got the New Zealand flag by
my name on the leaderboard every week, I still feel like I’m representing
myself more than my country whereas last week was the complete opposite.

"Being part of a team, in
team colours and uniforms and everything like that, was great – I love that
side of it, I grew up playing team sports and still love that aspect of sport,
and after not having it for a while and having it again last week, I’ve missed
that side of sport a lot.

"To be able to walk around
the Olympic Village with 12,000 other athletes was incredible, to walk past
Michael Phelps going into the dining room, you don’t ever really get that – you
get it a bit with a few golfers at some of the big events, but you don’t get
superstars in other sports, so that was a cool experience to be able to do
that."

Fox’s final round of 68 saw
him finish in a tie for 39^th, one shot better than Kofstad, who was
equally effusive about his time in Brazil.

"It was just enormous,"
said the 29 year old. "It was an absolutely amazing experience to be there,
along with all the best athletes in the world – they’re unbelievable up close,
it’s so different to seeing them on TV.

"It was incredible to be a
part of that whole circus, with 17,000 people living in that village, all
eating and training together, all the biggest names just wandering round – it
was pretty cool.

"I was part of the first
few golfers who got to compete in the Olympics – it was quite an honour and I
wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

"The atmosphere was amazing
– there were a lot of spectators, and I played with Adilson da Silva the
Brazilian on the last day, and they cheered so much for him he started crying
on 18."

A third Challenge Tour
Olympian, José-Filipe Lima – winner of the Najeti Open earlier in the season –
 will also tee it up this week after representing Portugal in Rio, where
the gold and silver medals were won by Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson
respectively – both Challenge Tour alumni.

Fox has fond memories of
his previous appearance in Geneva after starting with a ten under par 62 last
year, ultimately finishing third, and he feels in good form, having won on his
last Challenge Tour outing at the Tayto Northern Ireland Open in Partnership
with Ulster Bank.

"I have good memories
around here and I’ve been playing pretty good," said the 29 year old. "A couple
of days I struggled last week but I finished really nicely so the form hasn’t
dropped away too much.

"I love playing this golf
course and it should be a lot of fun this week – the format’s a whole lot of
fun and I’ve got my girlfriend out here now, so we’ll both enjoy this special
tournament.

"Northern Ireland was by
far the best I’ve played all year, and you don’t do what I did in the last
round very often, in any round let alone on the final day to win.

"Unfortunately I didn’t
quite carry that form on into Rio, though I guess the conditions were quite a
lot different, but I played some pretty nice golf there.

"I’ve got a fair few events
left on the Challenge Tour this year and I’m going to push pretty hard to stay
in that top 15 and hopefully finish even higher than that."

The prestigious Rolex
Trophy is unique on the Challenge Tour schedule for its format, with the 42
professionals competing in a week-long Pro-Am.

All 17 tournament winners
are present in Switzerland, with no player having won twice in an extremely
competitive season on Europe’s top developmental tour.

Romain Langasque arrives in
Geneva as the top-ranked player on the Road to Oman after overtaking Jordan
Smith with a runner-up finish at last week’s Vierumӓki Finnish Challenge, while
Swiss hopes will be pinned on Joel Girrbach, who – as an amateur – won on his
last outing at Golf Club de Genève two years ago.