This week’s Panama Masters sees the European Challenge Tour return to a country that has been a happy hunting ground for the Challenge Tour Members in recent seasons, with England’s Richard McEvoy the most successful of all following his victory in the Panasonic Panama Open back in December.
McEvoy produced a stunning finish of five birdies in his closing eight holes to take the Panasonic Panama Open by a single shot from Marco Ruiz of Paraguay at the Coronado Beach and Resort, with Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey and England’s Benn Barham underlying the strength of the European Challenge with respective third and fourth place finishes.
The European players produced a similar show of strength on the Challenge Tour’s first visit to Panama last season, where the Challenge Tour was again warmly welcomed by the players and staff of the Tour de las Americas.
Welshman Mark Pilkington may have lost out on the Panama Masters title in a play-off to Miguel Fernandez of Argentina at the Summit Golf and Resort 12 months ago, but he was closely followed by his fellow Europeans Ian Garbutt, Richard Bland, Gary Clark and Lee James of England, as well as Scotsman Greig Hutcheon.
Along with Pilkington, those five players occupied positions two to seven on the final Panama Masters leaderboard.
A return to the outstanding Summit Golf and Resort, and indeed Panama itself, bodes well for European hopes this week. Pilkington, for one, is looking forward to returning to the scene of his sudden-death play-off defeat last season, and, having taken fifth place at the Costa Rica Open last weekend, is hoping to take victory at the Summit Golf and Resort this time round.
“Obviously I know Summit very well after last year and it would be nice for me if I could repeat my performance in Panama at the start of 2004 and maybe even go one better because it is important to get some money on the board early on in the season.
“I am really looking forward to getting back out there because there are a lot of good memories to draw on. You seem to find that you play well at certain courses and I hope that is what happens for me when I get back to Panama.
“I think it can only be a good thing for the British and European players to go to places like Costa Rica and Panama because it can improve you as a player. I think what the Challenge Tour is doing in terms of joint sanctioned events out with Europe has been a success.
“The main Tour goes all over the world now and it is good to see the Challenge Tour following that lead. It gives the players the chance to play competitively all year round and gets you used to different countries, conditions and courses. You also get the chance to compete against some very good players from Central and South America, so as long as you don’t mind the travelling then it can only benefit you.”
