Alejandro Canizares: Another Spanish Star is Born

BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2006 Russian Open | General | 22 Aug 2006

The win in this past weekend’s Imperial Collection Russian Open will be not only a source of joy to 23-year-old Alejandro Canizares but a source of pride to his father, Jose Maria Canizares.

In just his third European Tour event the young Canizares won the event and in doing so has automatically gained full access to the European Tour for at least two years, not to mention the €150,000 first place prizemoney.

Canizares left his opponents not only in his wake but in awe of his performance.

“The shots he hit under pressure were fantastic, especially for someone in just his third professional event,” said runner up Scotland’s David Drysdale.

Third placed Gary Murphy of Ireland sang his praises even more. “I played with Sergio (Garcia) about a year after he had turned professional and this guy is as good as he was then,” Murphy told European Tour Radio.

Canizares played well in Germany three weeks ago in his first European Tour start and was well in the hunt before a final round 79 and then two weeks ago he finished a very meritorious 7th at the KLM Open. This week Canizares extended his one shot lead leading into the final round to eventually win by four over Drysdale with Murphy and Sweden’s Mikael Lundberg one shot further back.

Canizares played collegiate golf at the University of Arizona for three years where in his first year he was the NCAA Champion and was named as the Pac 10 Golfer of the Year for the second consecutive year before leaving and turning professional earlier this year.

Canizares is the son of former European Tour star Jose Maria Canizares, a man who was the forerunner to the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia amongst leading Spanish players.

Canizares Snr. won twelve events worldwide throughout his career, five of those European Tour victories. He was a member of four Ryder Cup teams, playing a key role in the historic 1985 victory when he defeated Fuzzy Zoeller in his singles match. He has played in more recent years on the US Champions Tour winning once and earning more than US$7 million since joining in 1998.

Judging by the start that his brilliant son has made to his professional career, it would seem the impressive career of Jose Maria’s could well be surpassed by Alejandro and Spain appears to have a yet another golfing hero to adore in the years to come.