Kent's European Tour challenger Benn Barham is looking forward to playing on home turf when the European Open comes to the London Golf Club for the first time this week.

The Ashford golfer has played the Jack Nicklaus-designed Heritage course several times and is confident it will present a good test for the top European players.

He played in the recent Pro-Am there and says the course is in magnificent condition.

"The greens will be much quicker for the Tour event," said Barham. "And, no doubt, it will be tighter and narrower so it will be a great event. If the wind blows as it often does, as it is quite open there, then it will keep the scores down.

"Kent does not get too many chances to see the top players in action and no doubt there is going to be a fantastic atmosphere and I am really looking forward to it.

"The par fives are really long and need good, accurate drives to have any chance of reaching them in two," he said. "One of the best is the 5th where you play over the brow of a hill and then to the green with a lake off to the right."

Barham predicts 12 to 15 under could be a winning score over the four days but if the weather is difficult it could be much harder to break par.

Barham, who is attached to Chart Hills at Biddenden, will be hoping he has a better tournament than the he did in Paris at the weekend when he missed out on making the cut after carding rounds of 71 and 74.