– This Thursday marks the start of the Interwetten Open of the HotelPlanner Tour. It is played in Austria, at the Schladming-Dachstein Golf Club. It is the sixteenth tournament of the season in the second division of European golf. After this event, only ten more tournaments will remain before the two reduced field events in China and the grand final in Mallorca. There is room, but increasingly less, especially for those looking to retain their card.
– Austria has not treated the Armada too badly in the Challenge Tour. 31 tournaments have been held so far in the land of the waltz, and the Armada has two victories. The first was exactly 20 years ago, achieved by Rafa Cabrera Bello. The second was by Nacho Elvira in 2015, nine years later. Those who love numerology might say it’s time to win again in Austria. Why not this week?
– Nine Spaniards are facing this event with the idea of joining the club of Rafa and Nacho. They are Quim Vidal, Rocco Repetto, Santi Tarrio, Víctor Pastor, Sebas García Rodríguez, Albert Boneta, Lucas Vacarisas, Adri Arnaus, and Javier Sainz. Let’s remember that two victories have already been recorded for Spanish golf this season, Vidal’s in India and Repetto’s in Sancti Petri. It’s a good time to add a third.
– In this regard, it’s worth pausing a bit on the small numbers of Albert Boneta. The big names say he occupies the 38th position in the Road to Mallorca, which would currently get him into the grand final, but would leave him out of the 20 DP World Tour cards. Those numbers also say he has played nine tournaments of the HotelPlanner Tour and has only finished in the top 10 once. At first glance, sticking with the big numbers, it seems a modest haul.
That’s why we say it’s worth digging a little deeper. If golf were football, we would say that Albert Boneta, who secured the card for the first (a poor category) and second division at the School Final, is building his great attack from possession, calmly, touching the ball, carefully preparing the final strike. Because yes, he has only finished in the top ten once (he was fifth in Abu Dhabi), but the reality is he has only missed one cut in those nine events and has finished six times, two-thirds, in the top 26. His two worst results, beyond that cut, have been a 38th and a 44th.
The parity in the HotelPlanner Tour is brutal, and the difference between a player who finishes 24th in a tournament and another who wins is not that great. Every week it is demonstrated in increasingly tight leaderboards, with very little difference between those fighting to win and those struggling to make the cut. Boneta is preparing his great attack with cold blood, waiting for his moment. And it could come at any moment. His most recent results say so. Alternating between the DP World Tour and HotelPlanner Tour, he has made four of the last five cuts.
– Additionally, Austria brings good memories to the young golfer from Barcelona. After all, he played his first career tournament in the Challenge Tour here last year. He didn’t make the cut, but it served as experience. In fact, Boneta missed the cut in his first three tournaments in the Challenge, and since then, he has made nine out of ten cuts.
– Of the nine Spaniards present in Austria, three are in the top 20 and will try to make a giant leap this week to get closer to the DP World Tour card: Vidal (5th), Repetto (13th), and Tarrio (20th). Additionally, there are four others who are very close: Pastor (30th), Sebas García (32nd), Boneta (38th), and Vacarisas (39th). Further back, but within reach of the top 20 and, of course, the Mallorca final is Arnaus (51st), and the most out of place, because he has also played the least, is Javier Sainz (195th), who needs a big boost to get into the fight to retain the card.
– From the Road to Mallorca, 13 of the top 20 are in Austria. Only half of the top 10. Another good opportunity to scrape points from those coming from behind.
