All eyes will be focusing on the exploits of Argentina’s Daniel Vancsik this week as he bids to create his own piece of golfing history at the Abierto Telefonica Moviles de Guatemala by becoming the first golfer to win the same tournament on three successive occasions in the history of the European Challenge Tour.
It was at the 2003 Abierto Telfonica de Guatemala that Vancsik burst onto the Challenge Tour scene with an excellent play-off victory over his compatriot, Juan Abbate, at the Hacienda Nueva Country Club.
That victory was Vancsik’s stepping stone to Europe and he has become one of the Challenge Tour’s top players having finished 29th on the final Rankings in 2003 and then 23rd in 2004, over the past two years as a result of that maiden win.
Vancsik’s victory at the same event last year, when he won by two strokes from Paraguay’s Marco Ruiz, cemented his status as a Category One Challenge Tour Member, and he will be hoping that he can fulfill his historic quest when he returns to the Hacienda Nueva CC this week.
He will meet strong resistance from both his Challenge Tour and Tour de las Americas colleagues as the sixth and final joint-sanctioned event of the 2005 Challenge Tour season between the two tours gets underway.
Given his performances in the first five tournaments of 2005, current Challenge Tour Number One and 2004 Tour de las Americas Order of Merit winner, Rafael Gomez of Argentina, looks likely to be challenging for the top prize.
Gomez has performed remarkably during the Challenge Tour’s joint-sanctioned events in Latin America. The 37 year old won the first event of 2005 at the 47th Abierto Mexicano de Golf, took sixth at the Panasonic Panama Open, 14th at the TIM Peru Open, 11th at the Costa Rica Open and then third at last week’s Panama Masters, all of which has seen him earn €52,514 in prize money and dominate the Number One spot on the Rankings.
Sebastian Fernandez of Argentina and Scotland’s David Orr managed to tie Gomez for third place in Panama last week, and both players will bring good form to Guatemala, with Fernandez playing particularly well having moved to second place on the Rankings.
The European threat will also be strong, with Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey and Panasonic Panama Open Champion Richard McEvoy of England – who respectively occupy third and fourth place on the Rankings – both in the field for the Abierto Telefonica Moviles de Guatemala.
