Pedro Figueiredo leads the Optilink Tour Championship, a tournament that started this Monday, March 14, at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, in Vilamoura.
With a total of 70 players, the Optilink Tour Championship ends on Wednesday the 16th.
At a time when not all players from the two main European circuits are able to enter the tournaments taking place in South Africa, and when many European circuits are still stopped due to bad weather, some players from the DP World Tour and the Challenge Tour choose to compete this week in the Algarve.
Pedro Figueiredo ended the first day in charge with 68 strokes, four under par, with Ricardo Santos sharing 3rd place with Englishman Stuart McLaren, with 70 (-2).
Pedro Figueiredo and Ricardo Santos have already played this year in the DP World Tour, the first European division, but, as Santos explained, «the tournaments in South Africa only give 75 seats to the European Tour players and 75 to the Sunshine Tour players and it is difficult get in".
By the way, this week, at the Steyn City Championship, in South Africa, the only Portuguese present will be Stephen Ferreira, who entered for being a top-50 in the Order of Merit of the Sunshine Tour. Ricardo Melo Gouveia is injured.
In Vilamoura, in this Optilink Tour Championship, between leader Pedro Figueiredo (national champion in 2013) and 3rd place Ricardo Santos (national champion in 2011 and 2016), Hugo Santos is in 2nd place (national champion in 2012) , with 69 (-3). Hugo Santos is a coach at the Vilamoura Golf Club, but he continues to compete and last year he won one of the FPG Circuit tournaments.
There are four Portuguese in the top-5 and Tomás Melo Gouveia appears in the group of 5th classified, with 71 (-1). Tomás is a player on the Challenge Tour, the European second division, a circuit that has no tournaments this week.
Champion of a PT Tour tournament a month ago, in Palmares, Algarve, Tomás Melo Gouveia shares 5th place with three Brits: Ben Bailey, John Ross Galbraith and George Bailys.
Among the remaining Portuguese, the amateur Hugo Camelo stands out, who was in evidence in February, with a 16th place in the last International Amateur Championship of Portugal.
The FPG national team player occupies the 23rd place tied, with 74 (+2), the same result as Pedro Almeida. With 1 more shot, 75 (+3), João Girão integrates the group of 34th classified. Pedro Lencart is 41st with 76 (+4); Guilherme Oliva 51st with 77 (+5); João Magalhães 58th with 78 (+6); Alexandre Abreu 63rd with 79 (+7); and Miguel Gaspar 65th with 81st (+9).
«Today was not an easy day, with some rain on the first nine holes, the course was wetter than usual, for example, in the Portugal Masters, the ball rolls less, the course gets longer and the greens softer", said Pedro Figueiredo, who, even so, managed a good lap without having suffered any bogey.
“It was a solid comeback. I hit 18 greens. I don't know if it was the first time in my career, but it's rare and I used the drive on all holes (except Par-3). I played quite well tee, which is not usual for me in this field and that helped later in the s ao greens. I was pretty good in greens between holes 10 and 18, but then I didn't take advantage of some opportunities between holes 1 and 9. But it was a good lap”, said the player from Quinta do Peru Golf & Country Club.
However, yesterday the Optilink Pro-Am was disputed, won by the British Daniel Smith, who played with the amateurs Dave Newton, Paul Oldham and Raymond Bishop, with 92 points stableford net.
Comments