Ahead of this week’s Challenge de España, we bring you ten key statistics from the history of the event.
One-One Challenge de España winner has gone on to become a Major Champion. After graduating from the European Challenge Tour in 2013, Brooks Koepka etched his name into golfing history when he triumphed at the US Open in 2017. American Koepka carded a closing 67 and finished four shots ahead of nearest challenger Brian Harman at Erin Hills Golf Club.
Three-Host nation Spain have yielded three winners since the tournament’s inception 19 years ago. Carl Suneson, Alvaro Velasco and Eduardo de la Riva have all triumphed at the event, however Sweden and France also have three winners apiece.
3.16- Statistically, the toughest hole at last year’s Challenge de España was the 222-yard par three ninth. Players took 3.16 shots to complete the hole on average, with only 31 birdies across the week. The most common outcome was par, with three shots being taken on 281 occasions, while there were 83 bogeys. There were ten double bogeys throughout the week, the fourth-most of all holes.
Four-This will be the fourth time that Izki Golf has hosted the event. The Urturi venue held the tournament in consecutive years between 2002 and 2003, before a 13-year hiatus. Frenchman Victor Perez won the tournament on its return to Izki last year.
Ten-Brooks Koepka became the first American to win multiple Challenge Tour titles in the same season since Brad Sutterfield in 2005 when he won by a stunning ten-shot margin in 2013. Finishing 24 under par overall, his ten-shot margin of victory is one of the largest in Challenge Tour history.
20-The difference between the lowest and highest winning rounds in the history of the Challenge de España. While Carl Suneson and Andrew McArthur carded eight under par totals of 280 after four rounds, 2013 winner Brooks Koepka finished 24 under par, a total of 260 shots. Koepka’s win came at the 71-par Tecina Golf while Suneson triumphed at El Saler, Valencia, and McArthur came out on top at the Casino Club de Golf Retamares in Madrid, both of which are 72-par courses.
24-Koepka’s 24 under par finish in 2013 is also the lowest-ever under par score at the Challenge de España. Throughout his four rounds, Koepka carded only one double bogey – on the fourth hole of his first round – and one eagle, also during his first round on the seventh hole.
26.4-The average age of Challenge de España winners. There have only been three players over the age of 30 who have won the competition, with all other victors aged between 22 and 29. The youngest winner of the Challenge de España was German Moritz Lampert when he triumphed in 2014 aged 22 years and 25 days, while the oldest champion was Spaniard Carl Suneson, the maiden Challenge de España winner aged 31 in 1999.
234- The number of Official World Golf Ranking places climbed by last year’s Challenge de España winner Victor Perez. The Frenchman went into the event after missing the cut at the previous week’s Kazakhstan Open but secured a three-shot victory in Spain following a scintillating final round of 65. Perez was ranked 568thin the world before the event, but his victory placed him 334th.
1994-Izki Golf, the venue for the 2018 Challenge de España, first opened its doors in 1994. It was designed by the great Seve Ballesteros after the two-time Masters Tournament champion founded the golf course design company Trajectory in the 1980s.
