European Tour plays Castello Masters
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2010 Castello Masters Costa Azahar | Preview | 21 Oct 2010
The European Tour moves from Portugal across the border this week to Spain for the first of two tournaments there, the first being the Castello Masters Costa Azahar in Valenica.
Situated on the eastern coastline, Valencia is hosting this event for the third year, the Ramon Espinosa designed Club de Campo del Meditteraneo the host on each occasion.
This week’s tournament is followed next week by the Andalucia Valderrama Masters, the last event in Europe of the 2010 European Tour schedule before the Tour heads to Asia and The Middle East for the four remaining events.
The field is not a particularly strong one, Rhys Davies at number 54 the leading world ranked player ahead of last week’s winner in Portugal Richard Green.
After a great run earlier in the season, Davies has not been quite so successful of late but he did well enough in a much stronger field last week and could do well.
Green has won only three times in his 14 year career on the European Tour but he has developed a level of consistency this season that could see him follow up last week’s effort with another good week.
Gonzalo Fernandez Castano finished runner up last week in Portugal and has generally played consistently well in the last two months or so. In front of home crowds he could conceivably better last week’s effort.
Sergio Garcia must surely turn his form around at some stage and this might just be the event to do so. He is from this region and that he has won and finished 4th in his two starts at this tournament suggests he has a comfort zone when playing here.
Garcia is returning from a nearly two month break and if he is tournament sharp enough he could continue his good run in this event. Now ranked 68th in the world, he has fallen from his former glory in recent times but at his best he is a level above most in this field.
Oliver Wilson has played well of late. He finished 9th last week and three weeks ago finished 5th in Crans Sur Sierre at the European Masters. Wilson has yet to win on the European Tour but stands a chance this week.
The Australasians in the field other than Green are Michael Campbell, Scott Strange and Mark Brown, a rather small contingent.
