Ricardo Gouveia arrives at this week’s Foshan Open, the penultimate event of the European Challenge Tour season, hell bent on earning the lion’s share of the lucrative $500,000 prize fund and deposing the current Road to Oman Rankings leader Sebastien Gros.
The third edition of the Chinese event is a crucial one for every player in the field, particularly those still chasing a guaranteed berth in the season finale in two weeks’ time – the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final.
Only the top 45 in the Road to Oman at the conclusion of this week’s tournament will earn a place for the showpiece event in the Omani capital of Muscat, where every player in the field will harbour hopes of forcing their way into the all-important top 15 and, with it, sealing European Tour graduation.
Portuguese Gouveia, however, is in the enviable position of having already virtually secured his place on The 2016 Race to Dubai, after a remarkable season that has included one win, three runner-up finishes, six further top tens and just a single missed cut in 16 appearances.
Far from resting on those laurels though, the determined 24 year old has made the long journey to Foshan City, near Guangzhou - just days after playing his home tournament on The European Tour, the Portugal Masters – with just one thing on his mind, jumping up from second place in the Road to Oman Rankings.
“I just want to get that number one spot,” said Gouveia, who has this year become the highest-ranked Portuguese player in the history of the Official World Golf Ranking, currently at 127th.
“I knew most of the players were coming out this week so I didn’t want to just take the week off and leave ranking points out there for the other guys. I just want to get to number one, that’s my goal now so I have to play everything.
“It’s not about the bonus pool for me (newly-introduced €60,000 bonus pool - €30,000 for the Road to Oman winner), I just want to finish number one. That was my goal after my win and then my second place in Slovakia and then when the European Tour card was secured virtually. It’s just a prestige thing and a confidence boost for next year too.
“It’s a good course, a great tournament, very well run, and the crowds are great so I’m really looking forward to playing here again and hopefully performing well.”
It has been a breakthrough season for the Guardian Bom Sucesso player, and last week’s experience playing alongside Ryder Cup Captain and former Open Champion Darren Clarke in the opening two rounds of the Portugal Masters was just another big learning curve.
“It was a great week, I had a lot of support,” he said. “I didn’t play my best but it was good to finish with a good round on Sunday, with a couple of birdies on the last few holes, and I’m looking forward now to the last two events on the Challenge Tour.
“I hit the ball really well in Portugal, I just didn’t hole as many putts as I wanted to but it’s just a question of dropping a few this week I think I’ll be fine.
“I like big crowds, it was a good experience last week with all of the home support, and playing with Darren Clarke on the first few days was a great help too, so it’s always good to learn every week and hopefully this week we’ll have some big crowds too.
“Darren was focussing on his game so I didn’t get to chat to him much, I was focussed on my game too, but it’s always good to play with high level players, experienced players. You’ve just got to learn and see what they do.”
The Road to Oman leader, Frenchman Gros, is also in the field hoping to secure a third victory of the season which would confirm his promotion to The European Tour before a ball is even struck at the Grand Final in Oman.
The remainder of the current top 15, barring 2013 Foshan Open Champion Nacho Elvira of Spain – who is already a European Tour player having claimed three wins this season – are all present this week in China.
For those outside the top 15, including 2012 graduate Scott Henry of Scotland (16th), Tom Murray (31st) – the winner of the most recent Challenge Tour event in Ireland - and English former European Tour winner Ross McGowan (37th), it is an opportunity to strengthen their bid for promotion.
Meanwhile, for players such as Scotsman Peter Whiteford (46th), José-Filipe Lima (51st) of Portugal and Swede Joel Sjöholm (60th) who currently sit outside the top 45 of the Road to Oman, it is a last chance saloon to keep their European Tour graduation hopes alive by earning a place at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final.
