South America’s brightest young golfing talent will get another chance to shine at the forthcoming Abierto International Copa Antioquia, which will mark the 29th occasion on which the Challenge Tour and Tour de las Americas (TLA) have joined forces to co-sanction an event.
Players from South America have triumphed in more than half of the previous 28 tournaments, with Argentina’s Sebastian Fernandez capturing the first co-sanctioned event back in 2003, at the Costa Rica Open presented by MasterCard, and Colombian David Vanegas winning the most recent, at last year’s Abierto International Copa Antioquia.
Vanegas, who finished 34th in the 2010 Challenge Tour Rankings, will have the chance to successfully defend his title when the Tour returns from March 10-13 to the Club Campestre El Rodeo Sede La Macarena, which is located in the mountains of Rionegro near his home town of Medellin, where US PGA Tour star Camilo Villegas was also born.
The event, which with a prize fund of US $230,000 is the richest on the TLA, marks the Challenge Tour’s fifth visit to Colombia, a country that witnessed Edoardo Molinari’s maiden triumph as a professional at the 2007 Club Colombia Masters.
Since then, the Italian has gone on to win the Challenge Tour Rankings with record earnings in 2009, before capturing two European Tour titles and playing a prominent role in Europe’s regaining of The Ryder Cup in 2010.
Other players who have progressed to bigger and better things since winning events co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour and the TLA include Kevin Stadler, the American who won the 2006 Abierto Visa de la Republica presented by Bridgestone on the Challenge Tour before repeating his success the following year on The European Tour, at the Johnnie Walker Championship.
Similarly, Tano Goya’s route to becoming a European Tour champion at the 2009 Madeira Islands Open BPI – Portugal began with his victory at the 2008 Abierto VISA del Centro 2008 presentado por Personal.
Goya’s compatriot Daniel Vancsik is another who has made the transition from Challenge Tour winner to European Tour champion, winning the co-sanctioned Telefonica Centro America Abierto de Guatemala in 2003 and the 2004 Abierto Telefonica before making the step up and entering the winner’s enclosure at the Madeira Islands Open BPI – Portugal in 2007, and then repeating the feat at the 2009 BMW Italian Open.
His friend and fellow Argentinean Rafa Echenique, who finished runner-up at the BMW International Open and won The European Tour Shot of the Year in 2009, also owes his place on the top tier in part to his success at another event co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour and the TLA, the 2006 Abierto Visa de la Republica presented by Jeep.
A week after Echenique’s victory, Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti triumphed at the Abierto Mexicano Corona, and he too is now an established European Tour Member.
The same applies to Welshman Jamie Donaldson, winner of the Abierto Telefonica de Guatemala in February 2007.
In the seven years since the first event co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour and the TLA, US€4,845,000 has been awarded in prize money, meaning this year’s Abierto International Copa Antioquia will see the alliance between the two Tours break through the US€5million barrier.
Alain de Soultrait, Director of the Challenge Tour, said: “Through our relationship with the TLA a number of South American players have been given the opportunity to play on the Challenge Tour, and many of them have grasped their chance with both hands. We are now looking forward to returning to Colombia, when we hope another young South American will emerge as a potential star of the future.”
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