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Portugal Golf: Madeira Islands Open

Portugal Golf: Madeira Islands Open – Daniel Vancsik wins PRO-AM.

The 22nd edition of the Madeira Islands Open – Portugal – BPI started on Wednesday (May 6th) with the usual PRO-AM competition that put on trial 52 professional and 155 amateur players invited by the Golf Club Santo da Serra and sponsors of the tournament.

The Argentine professional Daniel Vancsik won the event, alongside amateurs Rui Freitas, João Andrade and Milton Gouveia, which amounted to 61 strokes.

In second place was the team of Adam Gee, same score with 61 strokes , the english professional played alongside Pedro Araújo, Sean de Burca and Alan O’Brien.

Third placed with the same number of strokes (61) was the American Brinson Paolini, who played with the amateurs Salvador Costa Macedo, Marco Andrade and Gonçalo Carneiro.

The best portuguese professional on PRO-AM was Algarve‘s Gonçalo Pinto, with 61 strokes, the same as the top three, but with a worse outcome in the second round (tiebreaker). The young professional played with Romano Costa, Bernardo Freitas, Francisco Fernandes.

The awards ceremony for the PRO-AM takes place thursday, the 1st day the of the tournament, during the lunch period.

On that day the 156 professionals enrolled in the event come into competition, including nine portuguese players: Ricardo Santos, José Filipe Lima, Hugo Santos, Nuno Henriques, Gonçalo Pinto, Pedro Figueiredo, Tiago Cruz, João Pedro Sousa and amateur João Carlota which will be in the fight for the title in Madeira.

José Filipe Lima returns to Madeira Open as “full- member” European Tour, after ensuring the transition to the first division with the second position in the Challenge Tour at the end of last season. The 32 year old player admits that arrives at Santo da Serra Golf this year, with other ambitions: “Last year I came here to launch my career now came with a different spirit to win. On golf everything can happen, but in my head I am with the sense of winning”, stressed the player who last year finished the race in 9th place.

The luso-french professional played nine races so far of the first division of European golf, six of which passed the cut. “So far the tournament that I felt was best was in Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in January. It is a very difficult course and played with ease, with straights and shots without charging much pressure. I think that is the result of evolution and the work I had last year when I made some changes in fitness prep and at technical level” he explained .

The Madeiran Nuno Henriques plays on the course that saw him grow as a player showed up excited to return, since he does not spend much time in his homeland. In recent months played five events of the German satellite circuit Pro Golf Tour, but plans to participate in at least eight races of the Challenge Tour this year, hopes to have a place in the Fred Olsen Challenge de España, which takes place in June in the Canary islands, or at the Belgian Open Challenge.

As for his participation in the Madeira Open, Henriques explains that it will be an opportunity to consolidate his game. “I made many changes in my game recently, since the swing to the short game and am in the process of competition testing what I do in training, so do not come with many expectations about the outcome, but that may even be good” said the Madeiran professional who now trains with belgian Bart Bollen who also coaches Thomas Pieters and Christopher Mivis.

On the course he knows so well, the professional from Madeira described it as “very difficult “. “If the wind remains as it is today (PRO-AM) I think will be the toughest ever” Henriques stressed referring to the strong wind that was felt throughout the day in Santo da Serra Golf.

The #1 portuguese Ricardo Santos corroborates the opinion of Henriques and foresees a week where the perseverance of the player can be decisive. “We must have patience and maximum focus. With this wind becomes difficult to control the distances to the green and read the lines of the game because the wind has a lot of influence” says the Algarve‘s professional .

Keith Waters, Chief Operating Officer of the European Tour, visited the Madeira Open and expressed its appreciation for the role that race has on the European Tour: “It is important for the European Tour tournament because it gives opportunity to young players play, including those who are on the Challenge Tour, has a good prize-money and offers the possibility of achieving exemption. It is a tournament with history, has 22 editions and is always very well organized” stressed the head of the European Tour.

Courtesy of Tee Times Golf Agency – tour operator since 1993.