Having virtually secured his fate as a European Tour player for the 2016 season, the Challenge Tour’s Road to Oman Rankings leader Ricardo Gouveia returns to home soil hoping to fast-track his way to the big time by winning this week’s rescheduled Madeira Islands Open – Portugal – BPI.
The 23 year old is one of the most exciting talents to emerge from Portuguese golf and has been on imperious form on Europe’s top developmental tour this year, winning his second career title earlier this month and finishing outside the top ten just twice in ten appearances this year without missing a cut.
Having won in just his seventh appearance as a professional last year before marginally missing out on a European Tour card at Qualifying School Final Stage in November, Gouveia is certainly proving, in his first full season in the paid ranks, that he is the real deal.
Now, his unyielding focus has turned to putting his name among many of the biggest names in world golf as soon as possible and a victory at Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra this week would do just that - while also putting his name alongside Ricardo Santos as the second home winner in the tournament’s history.
It’s nice coming home to Portugal having played so well recently, I feel the respect from my fellow players
“I had a great week of practice last week at my home club Guardian Bom Sucesso and tried to get as much preparation as I could for this week so I’m feeling great,” said the former University of Central Florida student, who is number 159 in the Official World Golf Ranking - 107 places above Tiger Woods.
“The goal has changed for me since I’m technically on The European Tour next year - by looking at the statistics from the past years - so now I just want to win the Road to Oman Rankings and I’m in a good position to do that. I don’t want to rest on past results.
“The goal this week is of course to win. My game is in good shape, I just have to play smart and keep the same mindset as I’ve been doing for the past few months.
“It’s nice coming home to Portugal having played so well recently, I feel the respect from my fellow players. It’s great, but I don’t want to think about the past, I want to keep it going and work as hard as I can and prepare as well as I can for each week.”
Gouveia had made the first round cut on the mark in the original week of this event back in March, before play was abandoned and the tournament cancelled due to severe weather conditions.
But, with the sun beaming down on the picturesque mountain-top venue this week in peak summer season, the former Palmer Cup player is delighted the unprecedented decision was taken to reschedule the event and he is thoroughly looking forward to the week ahead.
“I didn’t play very well in the first half of my first round in March,” he said. “But I came back strong in my back nine and played much better. Obviously, it was cancelled after that.
“I think it’s good that we have a four-day tournament here now and not a two-day tournament. I think we’ll finish all four rounds this time.
“It’s great that we get to come back here and it’s a nice time of the year to be here. It’s such a big event for us on the Challenge Tour.
“You can see that it is very important to these islands. You could see that last time, when the weather was coming in, they really wanted to keep the tournament going but the weather was just too bad, so you could feel the disappointment.
“It’s positive for the young Portuguese players too. A young guy called Goncalo Pinto was doing quite well in March after the first round and it was important for him because he is playing on invites and needs as much prize money as he can get, so it’s good he gets another go at it.”
2012 Champion Ricardo Santos returns to Madeira this week
Gouveia is joined in the field by his compatriot and 2012 champion Santos, who went on to become the first Portuguese player to be crowned Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year that year.
He is joined by 14 fellow former European Tour winners, including Sweden’s former Ryder Cup player Jarmo Sandelin, Kenneth Ferrie of England and Welshman Rhys Davies, who has won twice already on the Challenge Tour this year.
