The Road to Mallorca heads to Spain for the second time this year for the Challenge de España at Club de Golf Playa Serena. Here’s everything you need to know this week.
Club de Golf Playa Serena
Club de Golf Playa Serena, situated in the town of Roquetas de Mar close to Almería, offers spectacular coastal views and it will welcome the Challenge de España for the first time this September.
The visit to Club de Golf Playa Serena forms part of the Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca International Schedule. The top 20 players on the Road to Mallorca Rankings at the conclusion of the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final at Club de Golf Alcanada, Mallorca, will earn DP World Tour playing privileges for the 2024 season.
History
The Challenge de España made its first appearance on the Challenge Tour international schedule in 1999 when Spaniard Carl Suneson won the maiden event, but arguably the biggest moment in the tournament’s history arrived in 2016, when Nicolo Ravano became the second player in Challenge Tour history to card a round of 59 at Tecina Golf.
Recent winners of the event include French duo Victor Perez and Antoine Rozner, who have both gone on to win on the DP World Tour, as well as Czech Ondrej Lieser, who incredibly won at Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri before winning the Challenge Tour Grand Final two weeks later to top the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
Success of recent champions
Victory at the Challenge de España has often led to players making the step on to the DP World Tour in recent years. Six out of the past seven winners have moved on to the DP World Tour, showing victory in Spain can be a good omen for graduation. Leiser became the first Czech to claim a DP World Tour card, 2019 winner Rozner has since claimed two victories on Europe’s top tier, while 2017 winner Perez triumphed at the 2019 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to secure his maiden title. Santiago Tarrio, who won the 2021 Challenge de España, and Jens Dantorp who won the following edition, both claimed their DP World Tour card in the same year as their respective victories.
