Ricardo Gouveia wants it all. Not content with becoming the highest-ranked Portuguese player in the history of the Official World Golf Ranking, the determined 24 year old wants to be the man at the top of the pyramid – ahead of Jordan Speith, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, everyone.
When the young star embarked on a stunning run of five successive birdies in the final round down the stretch en route to claiming a breath-taking victory at the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final – topping the Road to Oman Rankings in the process - it was a fitting end to a season in which he was fixated on being the headline act.
Gouveia had long secured his European Tour card before the big-money final two events of the season and he was under no obligation to traverse the globe and various time zones to touch down in China for the penultimate outing of the season, The Foshan Open.
The stocky Lisbon-born player is as honest as his game is unwaveringly solid and he had no bones about stating his intentions that week to overtake Frenchman Sebastien Gros at the top of the Road to Oman Rankings.
“I just want to get that number one spot,” he said. “I knew most of the players were coming out this week so I didn’t want to just take the week off and leave ranking points out there for the other guys. I just want to get to number one, that’s my goal now so I have to play everything.”
One thing those who have followed closely his remarkable rise through the ranks of Europe’s top developmental tour will observe is that, with Gouveia, it is rarely ever in doubt.
Birdie putt at the last in China to move to the summit of the Rankings heading into the season finale? Never in doubt.
A streak of birdies and an up-and-down from the greenside bunker on the final hole of the 2015 European Challenge Tour season to seal the crown as Challenge Tour Number One? Never in doubt.
Yet all the while, as he belied his years with a fierce determination to win, nerves of steel, as well as wisdom, humility and grace - the latter three virtues clearly passed down a generation from his endlessly friendly father Tomas - it always felt like these were just the nascent blueprints for some kind of brilliant masterplan.
“My goal is to be one of the top players in the world,” he said earlier this year following his win at the AEGEAN Airlines Challenge Tour by Hartl Resort. “My goals are global and if I keep playing like this I will reach my long-term goals.”
Gouveia’s unapologetic confidence and drive, a rarity in a humble sport where such words can often be deemed egotistical, never feels arrogant and his affable nature backs up the fact that while he talks a big game, there isn’t a modicum of malice and it is meant in the best way possible.
The last player to have displayed such steadfast self-assurance on the Challenge Tour was a young American by the name of Brooks Koepka – a stable-mate of Gouveia at Hambric Sports.
And we all know how that went.
In many ways, the young man who plays out of Guardian Bom Sucesso is the perfect ambassador for the Challenge Tour.
He arrived on the scene straight from a stellar amateur career in the American collegiate ranks at University of Central Florida, a bright and easy-going young man positively beaming at the opportunity to turn his hobby into a job and play among some of the most talented young players in Europe and the world.
But nobody could have predicted just how quickly Gouveia would have grown to become one of the hottest up-and-coming stars in European golf, knocking on the door of the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking within 15 months.
Now, with the hype machine in his home country revving up to fever pitch, he will carry the weight of a nation on his shoulders in the golfing arena.
Infinitely friendly, open, honest, easy-going, yet with a burning desire to win and leave the rest in his shadow, the future of Portuguese golf could not be in safer hands.
A superstar in waiting, an ambassador for the game and a true gentleman - Gouveia has conquered the European Challenge Tour. Next stop, the world.
