Is it Garcia's turn?
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2011 Castello Masters Costa Azahar | Preview | 20 Oct 2011
The Castello Masters is played this week at the Club de Campo del Mediterráneo in Castellon in Valencia in Spain where Matteo Manassero chases a defence of the title he won in his European Tour break through twelve months ago.
The 18 year old has not played all that well in recent weeks but neither has his play been bad and a return to such a venue which no doubt means a lot to his career will boost his chances.
Sergio Garcia won this event in 2008 and finished 4th in 2009 before missing the cut last year. The Spaniard has not won since the HSBC Champions just after that victory, but he has been in excellent form in recent months making all but one of his last 25 cuts worldwide. It would be of little surprise if he was to finally win again.
Joost Luiten finished third in this event last year and seems to be regularly putting himself in contention of late. He might be a good chance at longer odds.
Alexander Noren has won twice this season on the European Tour and has continued on with solid tournaments in recent weeks. He finished 23rd in this event last year although a poor last round cost him the chance of a much higher finish.
English rookie Tom Lewis won his third event as a professional in Portugal last week and there will be a lot of interest as to just how he might back it up this week. Clearly he is an outstanding talent but he could be excused if he is unable to come down from the high of last week this quickly.
Richard Green heads the Australians after an indifferent week last week when defending in Portugal. He will be better for the outing last week however as he has not played a lot of tournament golf of late.
Brett Rumford is currently 121st on the money list and with the leading 115 regaining their status for next year he has work to do. He had a much better tournament two weeks ago when last in Spain although his last round of 77 proved very costly and could potentially count against him later in the year.
Marcus Fraser, Daniel Gaunt, Matthew Zions Andrew Dodt, Scott Strange and New Zealander Mark Brown make up the balance of the down-under contingent.
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