Madrid marks Southern European swing
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2009 Madrid Masters | Preview | 07 Oct 2009
The Madrid Masters, the first of three consecutive events in southern Europe, is the next event on the European Tour. The tournament is being played at the Centro Nacional de Golf a new venue for this particular event after the inaugural staging in 2008 was held at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.
The defending champion is South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel who, in addition to winning this event last year, interestingly enough won at this particular venue in 2007 when he defeated Jyoti Randhawa to claim the Spanish Open that year.
Sergio Garcia plays his first event since the BMW Championship at Cog Hill where he finished an impressive 6th although it was not enough to earn a place in the final of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Luke Donald is in the field no doubt hoping to make amends for his poor Sunday at the Alfred Dunhill Links tournament where he led into the final round but could only manage a 7th place finish.
Donald is looking for his first win anywhere in more than three years and his first in Europe in five years but continues to play well all the same. A victory this week would be reward for a solid if unspectacular 2009.
Francesco Molinari appears on the verge of his first win in Europe since winning his own national open in Italy three years ago. He has played very consistently this season although he has struggled to finish off some very good opportunities. This week could be a chance to do just that.
Miguel Angel Jimenez put has put together several good tournaments of late including when 4th in Crans Sur Sierre and 6th at the Bridgestone event in Akron. The popular Spaniard will have plenty of local support in this event.
Rafael Cabrera-Bello is back to the form he was displaying earlier in the year with a win in Austria and a very good 4th place finish at the Alfred Dunhill last week. It would be no surprise for him to win his second event of the season. He has recovered from a mid season slump to play beautifully in recent weeks.
One player who might do very well at longer odds is the Frenchman Gregory Bourdy. He finished 8th on this golf course two years ago after contending for much of the week and has played nicely in recent weeks.
Australasians in the field are Brett Rumford, Marcus Fraser, Mark Brown and Peter O’Malley.
