Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia heads into this week’s Kazakhstan Open looking to cement his position as Challenge Tour Number One as the race to the line intensifies at Nurtau Golf Club.
With only five events remaining of the season and the tournament boasting one of the largest prize funds of the season of €450,000, whoever collects the €72,000 first prize on offer this week will almost certainly secure their promotion to The European Tour. Indeed since the inception of the Kazakhstan Open in 2005, every champion has gone on to graduate at the end of the season.
Gouveia, the highest ranked Portuguese golfer in history, holds a commanding lead over second placed Nacho Elvira at the top of the Rankings, but the size of the top prize presents an opportunity for many of the chasing pack on the Road to Oman to either close the gap or even overhaul Gouveia in pole position.
The race remains wide open with ten of the top 15 on the rankings are in action including Frenchman Sebastien Gros, who lies in third place on the Road to Oman Rankings and Welshman Rhys Davies, who has two Challenge Tour titles to his name already in 2015.
Former winners of this prestigious tournament include Ryder Cup winner Edoardo Molinari, who was victorious in 2009 and then went on to make the Ryder Cup team the following year, and European Tour winner Tommy Fleetwood, who captured this title in 2011.
On the home front talented Kazakhstan teenager Daulet Tuleubayev, who made his European Tour debut at lasts weeks M2M Russian Open, is unable to attend due to school commitments, so hopes lie with three players bidding to make golfing history. Kazakhstan have never had player make a cut in the their national Open but Alexander Vongay, Ku Kang Byung and Nurtai Saldarov are all bidding to become the first this week.
Vongay has made six appearances in the Kazakhstan Open dating back to 2008. This week will be his eighth appearance on the Challenge or European Tour with the other showing coming at the 2011 M2M Russian Open. Other hopefuls Byung and Saldarov, both amateurs, have three Challenge Tour appearances between them all coming at the Kazakhstan Open.
