– A golf tournament is full of unique stories. The vast majority do not see the light of day. There are so many open fronts that it is difficult to go beyond the first classified. The Challenge of Cadiz was not going to be less. For Ten Golf, the unique story this Friday has a clear protagonist: Ignacio Sánchez Palencia (PAR). He is a 42-year-old golfer from Granada who has made the cut. Maybe, at first glance, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but don’t go so fast…
The appointment at Sancti Petri has been his first incursion into the Challenge Tour since 2021, August, in Finland. And he hadn’t made a cut in this circuit since 2012. Twelve years have passed. The last one was in Brittany and he signed 87 strokes on Saturday. He already has a good challenge for tomorrow. Improve his last day of the movement in the Challenge Tour.
It should be said that Ignacio Sánchez Palencia, known in the backstage of Spanish golf as Popi, has never stopped competing, but he has moved away a lot. This year he had only played the Alps of Roquetas so far and did not make the cut. In 2023 he played two Alps and missed the cut in one and in the other he finished in the eighteenth place. In 2022 he played another Alps, from Las Castillas, and finished in the top 30. You see small incursions in the last three years, in tournaments in Spain and little else. He has also played the Andalusia Professionals circuit, with very good results this year: victory in Granada, sixth place in Campano, very close to Novo de Sancti Petri and fifth in Lauro Golf.
Throughout his career he has played 20 Challenge Tour tournaments counting this week’s in Sancti Petri and has never finished in the top 10. Will it happen just this week? When it comes to writing a unique story, not many would win this one. By the way, he struggled to make the cut. He was -3 with seven holes to go and signed three bogeys on the 12, 15 and 18 to just make it. Twelve years later, as if it wasn’t long enough…
– Another one who has reasons to celebrate his cut is the young Asier Aguirre (PAR), 24 years old. It is not in vain the first of his career in this circuit. At the fifth attempt. He made his Challenge debut in 2023. This cut is a new demonstration that he is doing things well, like that second place in the Gosser Open of the Alps a couple of weeks ago.
– More wood with the cut… Alfonso Buendía (PAR). Great round from the Levantine golfer. 68 strokes and two more days of golf assured in Sancti Petri. He had only made one cut in the Challenge in his career. It was, curiously, in Sancti Petri just a year ago. He likes this course and feels like a fish in water with his Toa Shoes. Everything adds up.
– We also look up. Another notch in the belt of Carlos Pigem (-6). The Ilerdense, despite missing the cut in the Challenge of Spain, is doing very well this season. You just have to look at his average strokes in the tournaments he has played in the Asian Tour and in Spain. Not counting the Asian school, his average is 70.18. He is at an excellent level and Sancti Petri is a course that in another time would not have suited him at all. Hats off to his year. Count on him this weekend. He’s going to be a headache for anyone who intends to win.
– Hole 16, one of the toughest at the Iberostar Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri. Joel Moscatel (-1), playing in the morning, hits a great drive. It just misses the rough on the right, with the bad luck that it gets very sunk. He has about 165 meters to the flag. He hits the pitch. Yes, you read it right. The pitch. He catches the green easily and leaves himself a birdie option. These guys play a different game. Don’t doubt it.
– Out of this world was also the 3 wood of Ángel Ayora (-5) on hole 8… Brutal. Five meters for eagle. He deserved it, but ended up in birdie. What a way the Malagueño has.
– Alejandro Cañizares has missed the cut after making 82 strokes. Fourteen difference from yesterday. We highlight his attitude in any case. First for the humour to fit a very tough round: “to have killed us”, he lets us loose. And second because he had already made an effort to stay with the good. “I leave this week happy for having made 68 strokes on Thursday without having my best game”. This is indeed a step forward beyond the results or the birdies.
