European Tour returns to Spain
IN: News | European PGA | Valle Romano Open de Andalucia (2007) | by Bruce Young | 09 May 2007
The European Tour returns to Spain a week after leaving Madrid for this week’s Valle Romano Open de Andalucia in Marbella on Spain’s south west coast. Just over a week ago Charl Schwartzel won the Spanish Open and last week the European Tour moved across the Mediterranean to Italy where Spain’s Gonzalo Federez-Castano won the Italian Open in Milan.
Schwartzel has bigger fish to fry this week at the Players Championship at Sawgrass but Federez-Castano will start as one of the favourites in this event in his home country.
Another Spanish golfer who will be amongst those considered a favourite is Miguel Angel Jimenez who, along with Federez-Castano, has been responsible for the creation of this event which is to be staged for the first time. Both players have their own golf promotion companies and they have joined forces to bring this event to the Andalucia region of Spain.
The Aloha Golf Club is a layout built in 1975 by the Spanish golf course architect, Javier Arana, featuring greens with cool season grasses and Bermuda fairways.
With so many of the world’s elite in Florida this week there are no players from the top fifty in the field with Y.E.Yang the highest ranked at number 52. Yang gained European Tour status following his impressive victory at the HSBC Champions event in China late last year but has played sparingly since. He did however finish 30th at the Masters which in itself was a very good debut. A regular winner on the Japan Golf Tour prior to his win at the HSBC, his progress as a European Tour player will be watched with interest.
Despite losing ground in the world rankings in recent months, Jimenez has still played well enough for him to be considered a threat in this event. He will be keen to do well given his connection to the running of the tournament but whether that works for or against him remains to be seen.
Thomas Bjorn is one of the class players in the field but he seems to be struggling at present and a win would surprise.
Simon Dyson is coming off three top tens in his last five European Tour starts including when fourth two weeks ago in Spain. He had played very well in Asia, as he so often does, earlier in the season and it would not surprise to see him win his third European Tour title this week.
Federez-Castano, like Jimenez, will be distracted somewhat by being involved in the management of the event but he is in very good form at present and the 2005 Rookie of the Year could go close to back to back victories.
Sweden’s Joakim Backstrom seems to have found some very good form in recent weeks. His 21st place last week in Italy was highlighted by his opening round of 62 and he was doing very well at the BMW Asian Open prior to his last round demise. He has already won on the European Tour so a win here is not out of the question.
Four years ago Kenneth Ferrie won his first European Tour title in Spain and nearly twelve month ago he played in the final pairing with Phil Mickelson at the US Open before finishing 6th. Any player capable of doing that is capable of challenging this field and improved form in recent weeks certainly helps his cause.
The Australasians in the field are Matthew Millar, Andrew Tampion, Wade Ormsby, Scott Strange, Simon Nash, Terry Pilkadaris, Terry Price, David Bransdon, Peter Fowler, Matthew Zions and Steve Alker.
