The Asian Tour celebrates from this Tuesday the last two semi-finals of its qualifying school. One is held on the Grand Prix Golf Club course in Kanchanaburi and the other at the Phoenix Gold Golf in Bangkok. Both in Thailand, although the one that interests us the most is the one in the capital, as there we have two Spaniards, Mario Galiano and Borja Martín, who are seeking their qualification for the grand final of the School.
The semi-final is played over four days, until Friday, and the first 18 will remain alive in the fight for the card. You have to play very well, as 113 players participate. Here nobody gives anything away. Once in the final, which is played next week and where Álvaro Quirós, Carlos Pigem and Gonzalo Fernández Castaño are already exempt, the top 35 get the playing rights, although only the first two will be able to play everything without restrictions.
So, Galiano and Martín will seek this week the Spanish full house in the final of the Asia School. To do this, you will have to play very well. Mario confirms this to Ten Golf. “The greens are quite hard and on all the holes there is a bad side and a good one. It’s not going to be easy to make birdies. The good thing is that the grass is hard, as we already knew, but there is not as much hair on the greens as we expected, so the ball rolls quite well. It’s going to be a demanding test and those who qualify will be, without a doubt, those who have played best this week,” says the Malaga native.
Perhaps the most unexpected has been the heat, as it is reaching 35 degrees Celsius at midday, which, combined with the humidity, becomes a factor that can be decisive. In fact, Mario has already activated the alert for a slump. “I’m clear that you have to take some food to the field. Today I forgot in the last practice round and I almost didn’t finish,” he points out.
Galiano attends to this medium in the middle of dinner. There are no shortage of anecdotes. “The restaurant has karaoke and is next to the road. You’re dining with cars and motorcycles passing by your side at a thousand miles an hour. It’s what in Spain we would call a sale. Authentic. We’ve managed to order a chicken with rice by gestures. So far, everything is fine,” he says with his usual sense of humour.
Beyond the two Spaniards, stand out in this semi-final the Swede Kristoffer Broberg, the Argentine Abel Gallegos, Samuel Westwood, son of Lee Westwood or the French Joel Stalter.
