Week of the Spanish Challenge, a classic in the Challenge Tour calendar since it was first played in 1999 (since then, it only stopped being played in 2005). This time it is played at the Real Club Sevilla Golf, a high-profile venue that also presents a course in magnificent conditions. The rough will not be a tough obstacle for the professionals this time, nor is it necessary, and it will be the greens that tip the balance, as they are already very fast and getting harder every hour that passes (the plan is for them to be really firm by Thursday).
Let’s go with the big data and what is most interesting: Spanish golf already adds up to a total of 68 victories in the history of the Challenge Tour, since it started in 1989, so the 27 Spanish players present at the event face the challenge of adding victory number 69. It certainly doesn’t seem like a bad time to achieve it, with such a battery of players, among which stand out some classic names of our golf (Gonzalo Fernández Castaño, Álvaro Quirós, Alejandro Cañizares or Alfredo García Heredia), passing through the Spaniards better classified in the circuit ranking (in this order: Víctor Pastor, Joel Moscatel, Ángel Ayora, Quim Vidal and Javier Sainz) and, in short, completing a wide range of representatives from all generations of our golf.
In the entire history of the Challenge Tour, by the way, 75 tournaments have already been played on Spanish soil, so this week’s is number 76. And since we are with the numbers: in the 24 editions that have already been played of the Spanish Challenge there were four victories of the Spanish Armada: Carl Suneson won it in 1999, Álvaro Velasco did it in 2010, Eduardo de la Riva in 2012 and, more recently, Santi Tarrio in 2021. Victory number 69 is due… Or the fifth, depending on how you look at it.
Of the 27 Spaniards present only Álvaro Quirós has won an international tournament at the Real de Sevilla. It was that Open de España in 2010. The one from Guadiaro, by the way, also won a test of the national circuit, the Peugeot Tour, in 2005, his first professional victory nineteen years ago… He doesn’t do badly, although his form is certainly a mystery. For now, the name weighs heavily, as he goes out in the stellar match alongside Gonzalo Fernández Castaño and Alexander Levy from 13.50 on Thursday. Keep an eye on Levy: he’s playing well and, in addition, the French Armada is the most successful in the history of the Spanish Challenge, with six victories. In fact, the young Frenchman Martin Couvra (he is 21 years old) defends the title he won last year at the Club de Golf Playa Serena in Almería.
