Joel Moscatel, Víctor García Broto and Pep Anglés share the tightest lead in the Challenge of Spain, with 8 players at the top, with 4 strokes under par, on the first day of competition. Just one stroke behind are also ProSpain member Javier Sainz, Daniel Berna and the seven-time winner of the DP World Tour, Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño.
The Challenge of Spain is shaping up to be a tough competition on a course that has tested the players’ skills, especially on the greens, “very typical of a DP World Tour tournament” as the players commented at the end. Thus, eight great players share the lead with 4 strokes under par: along with the three Spaniards, Moscatel, García-Broto and Anglés, are tied in first position the number 5 of the Challenge Tour, the Welsh Rhys Enoch, the 10th, the British Sam Hutsby, the Dane Jonathan Goth-Rasmussen, the Finn Tapio Pulkkanen and the Welsh Jack Davidson, a representation of the best European golf in the first round of the Challenge of Spain.
Víctor García Broto, who is the only one who has played in the morning matches, was accompanied by his coach Alex Larrazábal “to the bag, which is always a plus”, and has been of great help to recover a round that started with two bogeys to turn it around with birdie, eagle “with a perfect Drive to the street, 230 to the hole, low iron 2 to the fade that has bounced to the peta of the climb, I have passed 4 meters and I have putted”. Then he made two more mistakes on the 6 and 11 but finished with 5 birdies in the last 7 holes for a total of 68 strokes. “It was a complicated day with a lot of wind at the beginning, during the first 9-10 holes and it changed in the second nine. I finished playing really well, I only missed one green, on the 17th. I haven’t been playing too well for a while, so playing at home, on a course like the Real and so well, is wonderful”.
Joel Moscatel has made 6 birdies and two bogeys: “It went very well. I was nervous, I always get nervous, because I care… the important thing is to know how to manage the nerves and I have achieved it. I was making pars, on the 3rd I hit a good shot that I didn’t make, but I played very well the rest of the round. On the 7th, 8th and 9th I made three birdies in a row playing textbook golf, and the pity were the 2 bogeys to finish, but it’s part of the game: a flyer that we didn’t expect and I left it very far for 3 putts on the 15th but I can’t complain. The greens are tough and fast, so I’m very happy with the round. It was lucky to have Alberto (Calvo) with the bag, an experienced caddie who gave me a lot of tranquility. I’ve had a good season, with good feelings and there’s still a lot to go, but I’m very eager to see what’s to come. I really like this course and it’s spectacular”.
Pep Anglés: “the truth is that I started very orderly, by the 10th with birdie, I made an eagle on the 16th and then I started to play a little bit regular with the irons and I missed 3 or 4 shots that added a couple of strokes and I felt a little more uncomfortable; I held up well, I saved a long par on the 6th that I made 2 putts for good par, and then to not lose momentum I made a good up & down on the 7th that I hit a pool iron to the left and I had a very complicated flop and I made 3, given. There I made a reset and tried to make a couple of birdies to finish. On the 8th I made a bit ugly tie but it’s true that it was a bit strong but I almost put it in, and on the last hole I hit a good aggressive driver on the left, then half iron 7 and I had a very delicate flop on the left but I did it well, I left it practically given, and I was able to finish with a birdie and make the end of the round a little sweeter. The first day you don’t win but you can lose the tournaments. I came a little cold because last season was very hard and I played badly. I decided not to play for a while and now I’m playing very calmly, taking advantage of the opportunities that the RFEG is giving me. We never forget to play this but we do lose the rhythm of competition”.
One stroke behind the leaders is Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño who has presented a round of 69 strokes with three birdies and a bogey with which he ended “very happy, if they had told me that I was going to do 3 less before starting I would have signed it without thinking. Because yesterday and the day before yesterday I hit the ball very badly, I was very unhappy and yesterday I stayed until they closed the practice field, which is not a very good sign, when on a Wednesday you are on the practice field until they close, bad business. But it seems that I found something, because today I hit good shots, still a little bit cowardly in some things, but I held on very well to the course and I putted very well. Whenever you finish with 3 putts, you finish a little bit stung, but on a course that resists me so much, I sign it. And it happened to me again because I hit the last shot of the 18th confident, thinking ‘I think this is the first time I’m not going to make bogeys at the Real Club Sevilla Golf, and take’, it fell. But I’m happy and I’ll continue”.
Tomorrow Friday the competition will start at 8 in the morning, and the last matches will start at 3 in the afternoon. At the end of the second round the cut will be made in the classification that will pass the first 60 and tied in the 60th place who will be the ones to fight during the weekend for the 25th Challenge of Spain.
