44 European Tour winners with 89 titles and three Ryder Cups between them will meet at La Reserva de Sotogrande Club de Golf from April 3-6.
All is ready at La Reserva de Sotogrande to welcome the participants of the new dual-ranking event featuring 44 European Tour winners, the most prolific being Simon Dyson, Niclas Fasth and Thomas Levet with six victories each. In addition to three World Cup titles: Bradley Dredge, Marcel Siem and Marc Warren, and three Ryder Cup wins: Niclas Fasth (2002), Thomas Levet (2004), and Phillip Price (2002).
Some of them have great memories of winning in Spain, such as Niclas Fasth (2006 Open de España and Mallorca Classic), Peter Lawrie (2008 Open de España), Thomas Levet (2008 Open de Andalucía and 2009 Open de España); Michael Jonzon (2009 Castelló Masters) or Lee Slattery (2011 Madrid Masters).
Some of the players will arrive in superb form after a successful start of the season, like home favourite Alejandro Cañizares, the newest Tour winner (Trophée Hasan II) or David Horsey who posted three top ten in his last three appearances: 3rd at the Africa Open, 10th at the Joburg Open and 8th at the Trophée Hasan II, tied with fellow Englishman Tom Lewis.
Lewis made a strong professional debut winning the 2011 Portugal Masters in only his third start. Hit the headlines at the 2011 Open Championship by posting a five-under-par 65, the lowest single-round score ever by an amateur, to share the first day lead at Royal St. Georges en route to winning the Silver Medal. After finishing tied eighth in Morocco he declared: “I Love going to Spain, lots of good golf courses in that area. Played La Reserva as an amateur, love the course, suits me, if I continue to play like in Morocco, will not be far away”.
Other players to watch closely next week will be Robert Rock, 5th at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic where Bernd Wiesberger was 9th; Oliver Fisher who lost in a playoff at the Africa Open where Damien McGrane was 9th; Carlos del Moral, 4th at the Tshwane Open where Chris Wood was 6th and Simon Dyson 10th; or Jake Roos, recent winner of the Kenia Open, the first Challenge Tour event of the season.
The list of European Tour winners present at La Reserva de Sotogrande also includes Felipe Aguilar, Rhys Davies, Johan Edfords, Richard Finch, Alastair Forsyth, Mark Foster, Tano Goya, Mathias Grönberg, Anders Hansen, Gregory Havret, Jeppe Huldhal, Scott Jamieson, Simon Khan, Maarten Lafeber, Shane Lowry, Mikael Lundberg, James Morrison, John Parry, Richie Ramsay, Ricardo Santos, Patrik Sjöland, Graeme Storm, Simon Thornton and Anthony Wall.