European Tour plays Madeira Islands Open
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2012 Madeira Island Open | Preview | 08 May 2012
The European Tour moves from Spain to the Madeira Islands 800 or so kilometres off the coast of North Africa for this week’s Madeira Islands Open at Santo da Serra in Madeira.
The event has been played at this venue on several previous occasions the last of which was in 2008 when Alistair Forsyth won.
The field is made up of players from both the European Tour and the European Challenge Tour and although carrying prize-money of only €650,000 it offers an opportunity for players to jump from almost obscurity to fully exempt status on the European Tour.
The field is a not a strong one in terms of world ranking but the intensity of the battle is not lessened as the generally lesser lights of European golf look to take advantage of the absence of Europe’s stars, many of whom are in Florida for this week’s Players Championship.
Former winners Bradley Dredge and Alistair Forsyth head the list of players given their success at the venue as does Daniel Vancsik who won this event at this venue in 2007 by seven shots and won the Italian Open two years later.
Argentinean Vancsik has been a long way from the level of golf he was producing in those days however and he will need to rely on the good vibes he no doubt has about Santo da Serra to rekindle his game.
Markus Brier finished 7th in this event last year and last week, against a stronger field in Spain, he finished 7th suggesting he might be a good chance to do well this week.
The Australians in the field at this stage include Scott Strange, Daniel Gaunt and Andrew Tampion.
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