The Road to Mallorca returns to Spain for the second time in three weeks as the Challenge de España takes place at Isla Canela Links, Huelva. Here’s all you need to know…
New venue
Isla Canela Links represents one of the only links-style tests on the 2026 Road to Mallorca schedule as the venue makes its HotelPlanner Tour debut this week.
The par-72 layout has gained recognition in recent years, having been a feature on the Alps Tour – one of the HotelPlanner Tour’s Official Satellite Tours – and DP World Tour Stage Two Qualifying School, where American duo Spencer Tibbits and Ben Warian prevailed in 2025. A host of current HotelPlanner Tour players, including Max Kennedy, Tadeas Tetak, Marc Warren, Javier Calles Roman, Canon Claycomb, Kristian Hjort Bressum, all qualified for Final Stage having impressed at Isla Canela during last year’s Qualifying School event.
The course itself meanders along the bank of the Guadiana River, with views towards the Portuguese Algarve and Gulf of Cadiz. Despite being one of the flatter venues on the 2026 schedule, Isla Canela Links will provide a stern test at the Challenge de España with strong winds and undulating greens set to examine the field.
Flying the flag
A host of homegrown talent will tee it up at Isla Canela Links looking to follow in the footsteps of rising star Pablo Ereno, who triumphed on home soil at the Challenge de Catalunya two weeks ago. Ereno, who has enjoyed a sparkling start to the 2026 Road to Mallorca, fired a closing 66 at Fontanals Golf Club to join Hamish Brown on a finishing total of 22 under par. And when the Dane bogeyed the second play-off hole, a par for the Spaniard meant he was free to celebrate a maiden HotelPlanner Tour title and ascension to second on the season-long Road to Mallorca Rankings.
Ereno will tee it up again this week looking to strengthen his grip on one of the life-changing DP World Tour cards up for grabs for the top 15 come season’s end.
Past champions
The Challenge de España has been a long-standing fixture on the Road to Mallorca schedule having first been played 27 years ago in 1999, with Carl Suneson the first champion. Since 2006, the tournament has been an ever-present and has housed big-name victors along the way.
DP World Tour winner Matthew Baldwin sealed his maiden professional victory at the 2011 edition before five-time Major champion and Brooks Koepka won his third HotelPlanner Tour title in 2013, finishing ten strokes clear of his nearest challenger. DP World Tour winners Adrien Saddier, Antoine Rozner, Victor Perez and Martin Couvra have also tasted victory at the event, along with home favourite Joel Moscatel, who will tee it up at Isla Canela looking to make it two Challenge de España wins in three years after his triumph at Real Club Sevilla Golf in 2024.
Taking shape
The top of the Road to Mallorca Rankings are beginning to take shape, with Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen the latest player to stake a claim. The 36-year-old sealed his second HotelPlanner Tour victory last time out in Denmark, a result that vaulted him to fourth in the Rankings.
However, with Pulkkanen and Number One MJ Daffue, not in this week’s field, home favourite Ereno will be eager to take advantage. Englishman Chris Wood, sitting seventh on the Road to Mallorca, won the Italian Challenge Open at the start of May and will be looking for an improved performance on Spanish soil after missing the cut at the Challenge de Catalunya.
