The Road to Mallorca remains in Limpopo for this week’s Limpopo Championship. Here are our three men to keep an eye on this week…
Form horse
Matteo Manassero, the youngest winner in DP World Tour history, has made an impressive start to the 2022 Road to Mallorca and currently sits in 20th position on the Road to Mallorca Rankings. The four-time DP World Tour winner finished in a tie for eighth at the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open, before recording a tie for seventh at last week’s SDC Open as he looks to return to the DP World Tour nine years after his last victory, which came at the 2013 BMW PGA Championship.
The Italian triumphed at the 2010 Castelló Masters in Spain, making him the youngest-ever winner on the DP World Tour at 17 years and 188 days, before securing his second DP World Tour win at the 2011 Maybank Malaysian Open, making him first and second on the list of youngest DP World Tour winners.
Local boy
Road to Mallorca Number One JC Ritchie will be looking to use a combination of happy memories and course experience this week as he eyes his third Limpopo Championship victory in just four years. The South African secured victory at the 2019 Limpopo Championship and again the following year in 2020, the first year the event was co-sanctioned between the European Challenge Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
Ritchie is targeting his third victory on the 2022 Road to Mallorca and subsequently automatic promotion to the DP World Tour. The South African recorded back-to-back victories on home soil at the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open and the Jonsson Workwear Open, taking full advantage of the early season co-sanctioned events between the Challenge Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
The outsider
Jamie Rutherford topped the EuroPro Tour’s Order of Merit in 2021 to earn his Challenge Tour playing rights for 2022. The Englishman has made an impressive start to the Road to Mallorca, currently sitting in 18th position on the Road to Mallorca Rankings after recording a tie for eighth at the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open, a tie for sixth at the Mangaung Open and a tie for 15th at the SDC Open last week.
The 29-year-old lost his playing rights on the Challenge Tour in 2019, but looks to have returned with a renewed sense of purpose after earning another chance on the Road to Mallorca in 2022.
