Top Class Assembles in Madeira

The Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos celebrates its return to the European Tour International Schedule this week with one of the strongest field’s in the tournament’s 14 year history. After four years as a dual ranking event between The Tour and the Challenge Tour, this week’s tournament returns as a full European Tour event with an outstanding field that includes no less than eight Ryder Cup players, an Open Champion and 45 European Tour winners contesting the €700,000 prize fund.

Those players will find one of the Tour’s most picturesque golf courses on Madeira, the stunning Santo da Serra Golf Club, which nestles among the spectacular mountains that overlook the bay of Machico, over 800 metres above sea level on the Portuguese Island.

Santo da Serra is a truly inspirational setting for such a high class field, of which the highest ranked player, in 56th place, on the Official World Golf Ranking is Sweden’s Niclas Fasth. The 33 year old was part of Europe’s Ryder Cup success in 2002 and will be able to draw confidence from past fond memories of Santo da Serra, where he secured his maiden European Tour victory in 2000.

Fasth’s countryman Jarmo Sandelin is another player in the field who has won the Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos and represented Europe in The Ryder Cup. Sandelin won at Campo de Golf da Madeira in 1996 and played for Europe at Brookline in 1999.

Paul Lawrie was also part of that 1999 European Team, an experience that capped the most memorable season of the Scotsman’s career to date as he took The 128^th Open Championship at Carnoustie.

Lawrie heads the list of entries for the Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos, while Paul Broadhurst of England is the leading player on The European Tour’s 2006 Order of Merit (13^th) in the field. Broadhurst, who will defend his Algarve Open de Portugal Caixa Geral de Depositos title after playing in Madeira, was unbeaten in The 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island and is currently working hard to qualify for Ian Woosnam’s European Team to defend The Ryder Cup at The K Club in September.

The other players in this week’s field to have represented Europe in The Ryder Cup are England’s Peter Baker, who will be one of Ian Woosnam’s Vice Captains at The K Club in September, Gordon Brand Jnr and fellow Scot Andrew Coltart, who joined Lawrie and Sandelin in the 1999 Team, Welshman Philip Price, who  defeated Phil Mickleson in the final day singles in 2002 and Frenchman Jean van de Velde.

Meanwhile, the Spanish trio of Diego Borrero, Pedro  Linhart and Santiago Luna have, like Fasth and Sandelin, have all tasted success in the Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos before and will be looking  to repeat those past glories at Santo da Serra this week as The European Tour comes ‘home’ for the first time on the 2007 International Schedule.