RICARDO SANTOS WAS THE BEST PORTUGUESE AT THE DOM PEDRO VICTORIA GOLF COURS
CHAMPION SANTOS IN THE TOP-160 OF EUROPE.
RICARDO SANTOS WAS THE BEST PORTUGUESE AT THE DOM PEDRO VICTORIA GOLF COURSE AND WAS IN THE TOP-35 ALL WEEK, ENDING 32nd.
VÍTOR LOPES WAS 61st AND TOMÁS MELO GOUVEIA 62nd.
STATE SECRETARY OF TOURISM, RITA MARQUES, PROMISES 16TH EDITION IN 2022. DEBUT IN VILAMOURA OF THE STATE SECRETARY OF SPORT, JOÃO PAULO REBELO
Thomas Pieters joined today (Sunday) the prestigious group of five Portugal Masters champions who have already been part of the European Ryder Cup team in their careers. After an exciting final round, completed with a final result of 19 strokes under par, the 29-year-old has also gone down in history as the first Belgian to win the most important Portuguese golf tournament.
The 15th edition of the Vilamoura event was marked by the return of the public, with more than 24 thousand spectators flocking to the Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course over the last four days. The best Portuguese was Ricardo Santos, in 32nd place (-5), registering an interesting regularity, as he was all week in the top-35 of the only national tournament on the European Tour, which this year distributed 1.5 million tickets again. euros in prize money. And if the talented 20-year-old Danish twins Hojgaard dazzled in the Algarve – with Nicolai reaching 2nd place (-17), tied with compatriot Lucas Bjerregaard and Frenchman Mathieu Pavon –, there were also (almost) Portuguese twins .
Vítor Londot Lopes and Tomás Melo Gouveia played together for the four days, had equal results in the first three rounds, and only today they split, with Lopes closing his participation in 61st place (+6) and Gouveia in 62nd ( +7).
At the awards ceremony, presided over by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques, the official predicted, in her speech, the return of the Portugal Masters in 2022. João Paulo Rebelo, the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, visited for the first time Portugal Masters, highlighted the importance of the sporting aspect of the Algarve event and also celebrated the fact that three out of six Portuguese have passed the cut.
Thomas Pieters has been visiting Portugal since his amateur days. He remembers «having played here in the U-16 and U-18 European Championships» and the Portugal Masters was a mandatory tournament for him, between 2014 and 2017, but he has not been to Vilamoura since then. He had already proven that he could play well on the track designed by the mythical Arnold Palmer and in 2015 he was ranked 6th (-12). Today he has joined Lee Westwood (2009), Shane and Lowry (2012), Andy Sullivan (2015) and Padraig Harrington (2016) as the winning “Ryder Cuppers” in the Portugal Masters.
With three holes to go there were three players sharing the lead. It was a victory taken in irons, showing nerves of steel, being the third time in his career that he was able to hold the command achieved on 54 holes. However, this fifth title of his European Tour career had "a special flavor", because he had been living a trophy fast for exactly two years and 81 days, since he triumphed at the D+D Real Czech Masters in 2019. “It's an amazing feeling. Really… it's a feeling of a long time with no wins. But Adam (Marrow, the caddy) and I worked a lot and I feel I deserve this», began by telling the Belgian to the international media. Later, to the Portuguese media, he added: «For me it was very special to do this in this field, as I've been here since I was 14 or 16 years old, I played in this European under-16 and under-18 field, and finally winning here was really cool. It was my fifth title and now I want six, seven, eight… I love Portugal, it's November and we're playing with around 20 degrees, in a beautiful country, on a good field, which suits my game… I'm on the moon». For at least seven years, Thomas Pieters has been considered a world golfing talent. In 2016 he was already called up to the Ryder Cup and in Majors he had two top-10 ’s in 2017 and 2018, but for the past two years it seemed he was only motivated for big events. «In these two years without winning I haven't had moments of doubt. It was more of a certain impatience, because I've even been playing good golf, but I lacked that little thing… even today it could have all fallen to Mathieu (Pavon's) side.
If he hadn't ended up in the water on the 17th hole, it could have been a completely different tournament. It takes a little luck to win and I've had it on the last two holes,” he considered. It wasn't just luck, far from it. Playing your best golf at the important moments was vital to this victory. Yesterday he needed a giant, line-filled putt to make a birdie on the 18th hole and equal Pavon at the top of the standings. Today, after seeing Nicolai Hojgaard go to the bunker at 18 and lose 1 stroke, he saw his partner Mathieu Pavon go down in the water at 17 to also suffer 1 bogey.
Pieters, meanwhile, was firm: he got a birdie on 17 and went back to being huge on the 6m putt for Par on 18 to win with 2 strokes ahead of the chasing trio. The putts at 18 on Saturday and Sunday will stand as some of the best in the history of Portugal Masters winners. “It was a good birdie on 17. On 18, honestly, I only tried to close in 5 shots but doing it in 4 was a bonus”, he admitted, after pocketing a prize of 237,810 euros.
The victory in the Algarve ensured that he climbed from 70th to 29th in the Race to Dubai, making him automatically qualified for the DP World Tour Championship, in Dubai, in two weeks, a tournament reserved this year to the top-50 of the European ranking. It will be his seventh straight year to qualify for Dubai, showing that he really has always played consistently, even in the two years he hasn't won trophies. In fact, this year, he already has four top-10 ’s and eight top-20 ’s on the European Tour!
«The champion was Belgian, a market that is growing for the Algarve and everything went well there, too», stressed João Fernandes, the president of Turismo Algarve. The Portugal Masters has also been important in attracting or consolidating various tourist markets for golf in the so-called Florida of Europe and it is symptomatic that in 15 years we have champions from eight different nationalities: England, Ireland, France, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Australia and South Africa.
Of course, you dream of a Portuguese champion, but, as João Paulo Rebelo, the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, pointed out, there is an increase in the average level of our players: «It is the recognition of the work that has been done in the golf in Portugal. The first news I had when I arrived was to know precisely that, of the half dozen Portuguese players in the competition, three had reached this final stage, which for many years would have been a dream. If the dream is being fulfilled, it is because someone worked well».
Ricardo Santos was the best Portuguese at the Portugal Masters for the second time in his career, after 2012. That year he was 16th (-6) and 32nd place this year turned out to be his best ranking in the competition since then.
The 39-year-old Portuguese had a solid performance, especially regular, remaining every day in the top-35: 31st, 30th, 34th and 32nd, with an aggregate of 279 strokes (70+69 +71+69), 5 below Par. He was tied with three other players and raised 11,935 euros, which will do well to help him on the expensive trip to Dubai next week, where he will close his season and try to enter the top-122 that will remain on the European Tour in 2022. For now, this 32nd place in Vilamoura has allowed him to rise from 169th to 160th place in the Race to Dubai.
“I can say that the week was very positive. Today was the day I “patched” the best, although it wasn't the day I played the best from tee to green. I take a lot of good things out of here for next week, although it was a little short of what I would have liked, but there were many good things (…) and let's not let a bad shot stain the week», said the 2011 and 2016 national champion , referring to the ball he sent to the water in the last hole and which cost him 2 strokes. If it weren't for this double-bogey, Santos would be 26th, with a prize of around 14 thousand euros.
If Ricardo Santos passed the cut at the Portugal Masters for the fifth time in his career (the second best Portuguese record ever), Vítor Lopes and Tomás Melo Gouveia did it for the first time. They didn't show everything they know in the last two days of the race, but they also drew lessons from their participation.
“I thank the audience for having accompanied me through the four laps… I wanted a lot more, because I made a good preparation, but I have to learn and prepare for the next year”, said Vítor Lopes, 25, who was 61. º with 290 shots (71+69+76+74), 6 above par, earning 4,900 euros. For him, the international season is over and he will play for the year as part-time on the Challenge Tour (the second European division) and with full membership rights on the Alps Tour (one of the third divisions in Europe).
“The game didn't match again, especially on the greens. But it was a very positive experience, passing the cut and playing over the weekend, which he had never done, so it's always a positive note. I'm happy for having played because that's how you learn, it's playing against these players and that's the great lesson I take from here», declared Tomás Melo Gouveia, who finished 62nd with 291 shots (71+69+76+75 ), 7 above Par, pocketing 4,761 euros. Ricardo Melo Gouveia's younger brother also ends the international season and in 2022 he already knows that he will be a member of the Challenge Tour.
The 15th edition of the Portugal Masters ended with an awards ceremony that included Rita Marques (Secretary of State for Tourism), João Paulo Rebelo (Secretary of State for Youth and Sports), Vítor Aleixo (President of the Municipal Council of Loulé), Miguel Franco de Sousa (president of the Portuguese Golf Federation), Nelson Cavalheiro (president of PGA de Portugal), Filipe Silva (administrator of Portugal Tourism), Stefano Saviotti (owner of Dom Pedro Hotels & Golf Collection), Luís Correia da Silva (president of the CNIG) and Keith Waters (Chief Operating Officer of the European Tour).
"We have been working with the Portugal Masters for 15 years and we are eager to continue this partnership and are very excited about the possibility of us all being here next year", said Rita Marques, in her speech in English, at the ceremony.
Later, speaking to the media, she added: "After 15 editions, we are very committed to welcoming the next year and we are doing everything so that Portugal can appear again on the European Tour calendar."
Rory Colville, who this year made his debut as Championship Director of the European Tour, stressed that “it was an exciting tournament, we only had six weeks to set it up and we could once again have an audience, with more than 24,000 spectators, with four beautiful sunny days and a great champion in Thomas Pieters… honestly, we couldn't be more satisfied. We still don't have a set date but we are confident that we will come back next year».
The main results of the 15th Portugal Masters were as follows (interviews by Pieters, Hojgaard and Bjerregaard in full video on the Portugal Masters Facebook account):
1st Thomas Pieters (Belgium), 265 shots (68+64+65+68), -19, €237,810.
2nd Mathieu Pavon (France), 267 (68+64+65+70), -17, €104,546.
2nd Lucas Bjerregaard (Denmark), 267 (67+65+69+66), -17, €104,546.
2. Nicolai Hojgaard (Denmark), 267 (67+69+67+64), -17, €104,546.
The results of the three Portuguese who passed the cut were as follows (all interviews in full video on the Portugal Masters Facebook account):
32nd Ricardo Santos (Titleist), 279 (70+69+71+69), -5, €11,935.
61st Vítor Londot Lopes (CG Vilamoura), 290 (71+69+76+74), +6, €4,900.
62nd Tomás Melo Gouveia (San Lorenzo), 291 (71+69+76+75), +7, €4,761.
PRESS OFFICE OF THE PGA EUROPEAN TOUR IN PORTUGAL MASTERS
Vilamoura, November 7, 2021
Photography © Warren Little / Getty Image
