ANDALUCIA MASTERS
• Graeme McDowell will be looking to win the Andalucia Masters for a second time, having won the inaugural event 12 months ago. Should he make a successful defence he would become only the second player from Northern Ireland to win the same European Tour event in back-to-back years, following Darren Clarke at the 1999-2000 English Open.
• This is the second Andalucia-sponsored event on the 2011 European Tour; the first being the Open de Andalucia de Golf by Turkish Airlines, won by Paul Lawrie. By coincidence, both Andalucia tournaments hosted the first event of the season on European soil and the last; the Andalucia Masters.
• The 2011 season will witness Club de Golf Valderrama hosting the final tournament on European soil for the 19th time, dating back to the 1988 Volvo Masters.
• There are four players in the field who are past winners at Valderrama. They are: Graeme McDowell (2010 Andalucia Masters), Paul McGinley (2005 Volvo Masters), Justin Rose (2007 Volvo Masters) and Søren Kjeldsen (2008 Volvo Masters).
• There are three players competing this week who were part of the winning 1997 European Ryder Cup for Europe. They are: Thomas Björn, Ignacio Garrido and 2012 European Ryder Cup Captain, José María Olazábal. Miguel Angel Jiménez, a Vice-Captain in 1997 is also playing.
