Ricardo Gouveia is bidding to make history this week by becoming the first man to win both the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A and the Road to Mallorca Rankings on two separate occasions.
The top 45 players on the Road to Mallorca Rankings will tee it up at T Golf & Country Club as they look to finish inside the top 20 and secure playing privileges on the European Tour for the 2022 season, which Gouveia has already cemented as he currently sits second on the season-long Rankings.
The Portuguese is excited to be back in Mallorca and is relishing the opportunity to fight for history.
“I’m looking forward to it very much. I think this year it’ll be even more special because we have spectators, it’s a different vibe this year.
“Winning the Grand Final and the Rankings for the second time is on my mind but I’m going to focus on the same little goals that I’ve been focussing on throughout the season. Each day there are little things that I need to accomplish to have a chance to get that win.
“I’ll use the experience not only from 2015 but also from the two wins this year and even the bad moments gave me really important lessons, even more than the good moments. I’m going to use everything that I have in my experience so far to try and win this week.”
Spain’s Santiago Tarrio currently leads the Rankings following a stand-out season which has included wins at the D+D REAL Czech Challenge and the Challenge de España, as well as seven further top ten finishes, with Gouveia lurking just 7,000 points behind and eyeing the historic double after triumphing in the 2015 Grand Final and finishing the year as Challenge Tour Number One.
There are a plethora of storylines in the offing at T Golf & Country Club, with every player in the 45-man field still able to finish the season in the top 20. Long-hitting Wilco Nienaber, who won the Dimension Data Pro-Am earlier this year, needs to climb a minimum of four places if he is to secure his playing rights for 2022, as he comes into the week in 24th on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, one place ahead of England’s Jonathan Thomson, who arrives in Mallorca in hot form with two runner-up finishes in his last three starts.
Italy’s Matteo Manassero, the youngest winner in European Tour history at the age of 17 years and 188 days, earned a spot in this week’s field courtesy of a third place finish in the Challenge Costa Brava two weeks ago. The 28-year-old will need another strong performance this week if he is to break into the top 20 as he currently sits in 44th position on the Rankings, 18,000 points away from 20th place.
