Andalucía Challenge de Cádiz starts Wednesday and Portuguese have high goals
Ricardo Melo Gouveia and Vítor Lopes already have just one more opportunity to achieve the high goals they took to Cadiz a week ago.
The Andalucía Challenge de Cádiz, of 200 thousand euros in monetary prizes, started this Wednesday and is the last chance for Ricardo Melo Gouveia to join the top 45 of the Race to Majorca and qualify for the Grand Final of the Challenge Tour, which will compete on that balearic island, at T-Golf & Country Club.
The Portuguese national champion is the current 50th place, having risen only 1 place after finishing last Sunday the Andalucía Challenge de España in the group of 22nd places, with 286 strokes, 2 under par Iberostar Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri, after rounds of 72, 74, 70 and 70.
The other Portuguese who starts tomorrow for the Andalucía Challenge in Cádiz is Vítor Lopes. For him, the presence in the Grand Final of the Challenge Tour in Mallorca is not an objective, as he is not (yet) a member of the second European division, but he does not stop dreaming big.
A title would give him the qualification for the Challenge Tour in 2021 and when in September he led the first three rounds of the Portuguese Open at Royal Óbidos, he showed that he has the level to challenge the best on this circuit.
Vítor Lopes ended the 2020 season in 16th place on the Order of Merit of the Alps Tour Golf, one of the third European divisions, and managed to get invitations to play these two tournaments in Andalusia by drawing attention with his top-10 at the Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos.
Ricardo Melo Gouveia and Vítor Lopes had never played at the Iberostar Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri, a course designed by the legendary Severiano Ballesteros, considered by many analysts as the best Spanish course with the signature of the mythical Seve.
But after reaching two top-30s at the Andalucía Challenge de España, played on the same Andalusian stage, they already know their ways better and hope to be able to rectify what has adversely affected their games. They go to the Andalucía Challenge in Cádiz much more confident. «I didn’t know the golf course. There are two courses with nine very different holes. The Sea loop, as the name implies, is closer to the beach. It has more open and slightly easier holes. The Piños trail is a kind of pine forest, with many trees and narrower holes », analyzed Ricardo Melo Gouveia.
«I didn’t know the course, but we did two good training rounds. This golf course is very demanding from the tee to the green. It is narrow, with small and fast greens. It was a good test. Of course, my game is suitable for this golf course, although it is not long enough for me to enjoy my entire game. But I like the course and it’s a Seve Design, ”added Vítor Lopes. Also according to Vítor Lopes, «the course is in excellent condition. There was some rain during the night, but during the four days of the tournament we never got rain. Yes, there was a lot of wind in the first two days, which I like, which is why the overall results were so bad on those days. In the last two days the wind has calmed down and the results have improved ».
Hugo Ribeiro / Tee Times Golf (teetimesgolf.pt) para Record.
