Rocco Repetto has achieved the second Spanish victory of the season at Sancti Petri in the HotelPlanner Tour. He follows in the footsteps of Quim Vidal, who opened the account back in March in India. In total, since Spanish golf achieved its first in 1990 thanks to Antonio Garrido, the Armada has amassed a total of 73 wins in this circuit. The latest is Repetto’s in this Challenge of Cádiz which concluded this Sunday. If the Challenge Tour, now HotelPlanner due to sponsorship reasons, started in 1989, it means that Spanish golf achieves an average of two victories per year. Not bad. Only England, Sweden, and France have more victories to their name than Spain.
In this context, Rocco has achieved the 73rd victory and has become the 44th Spanish player to win in this circuit, the second division of the DP World Tour. The Armada has not missed its appointment with victory in the Challenge since 2016, the last season we drew a blank.
Certainly, Repetto’s victory is one of the earliest. Let’s remember he won in his second participation in the Challenge. It’s not easy to compile the list in absolute terms, as the data on the European Tour website is somewhat vague when we go back to the early years. What we do know is that there is at least one player, José Salgado, who won the first Challenge tournament he ever played, specifically the Open Ribera de Duero in Lerma in 1993. By the way, he was the ninth Spanish player to win in this circuit. There are also at least a couple of confirmed cases of victories on the second attempt, just like Repetto. They are Francis Valera and Pedro Linhart. In any case, Rocco’s achievement, at just 22 years old, can be described as a feat.
With the victory, Repetto enters the HotelPlanner Tour ranking directly at 14th place, meaning within the top 20 who at the end of the season will secure the DP World Tour card. Also within that coveted top 10 are Quim Vidal, who is fourth, and Víctor Pastor, who has moved into sixteenth with his second place in Sancti Petri.
Thus, Rocco has not only broken into the HotelPlanner Tour, but he has also set his sights on the DP World Tour. A giant leap. It’s impressive, although not so rare in recent years for Spanish golf. There are up to four cases of players who in one year moved from the Alps Tour to the DP World Tour in a single season: Valera (2005), Borja Virto (2014), David Borda (2018), and Sebas García Rodríguez (2019). However, the first three did it through the qualifying school at the end of the year, while the only one who did it by promoting from the Challenge was García Rodríguez.
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The victory will allow Repetto to make an impressive leap in the world ranking. Before the Challenge de Cádiz, he was in 1,145th place and this Monday he will be around 450th place. A triple jump. Sensational.
We warned before the start of the Sancti Petri tournament to keep a close eye on the Alps Tour boys, as they certainly made their mark. Victory for Repetto and a top 20 for Asier Aguirre. Mario Galiano started this Sunday with chances of victory, but things didn’t go his way, and he finished far back in the standings.
