Salou, first of two European stops in Catalonia with 18 Spaniards in contention

Ang Lakes course of Infinitum Golf, in Port Aventura (Salou, Tarragona) is from this Thursday and until next Sunday 24 (free admission) headquarters ISPS Ready Championship of Spain, DP World Tour tournament (formerly European circuit), which will feature the participation of some of the best European golfers, including 18 Spanish.

This will be the first of two consecutive tournaments to be played on Catalan fields, because, from April 28 to May 1 the Catalunya Championship will be played at the PGA Catalunya Golf & Wellness in Caldes de Malavella (Girona). Thus, these two tournaments represent the return of the European Tour to Catalonia after the dispute of Spanish Open in 2015, at the Real Club de Golf El Prat, in Terrassa.

The Ready Championship was awarded one million dollars in prizes (about 920,000 euros), and will be attended by 156 players from 25 countries, eighteen of whom are Spanish. And in the payroll, featured as Pablo Larrazábal, Adri Arnaus, Adrián Otaegui, Nacho Elvira or Jorge Campillo. Only Jon Rahm will miss the ‘Armada’ (he rests this week on the PGA Tour), Sergio García (he plays in the US) and at the last minute Rafa Cabrera, from the Canary Islands, who received an invitation to the PGA’s Zurich Classic Tour and exchange Salou for TPC Louisiana in Avondale.

in dispute with course designed by Greg Norman There will be six winners on the 2022 DP World Tour: Larrazábal (Pecanwood Classic in South Africa), South African Lawrence (Joburg Open, also in South Africa), Danish Nikolai Hojgaard (Ras el Khaimah Championship), New Zealander Ryan Fox (Ras el Khaimah Classic), Ashun Wu of China (Kenya Open) and Even Ferguson of Scotland (Qatar Masters).

Ryder had a taste

The five players who played in the Ryder Cup should also be highlighted: the Austrian Bernd Wiesberger, winner of 8 tournaments on the DP World Tour, and made history by becoming the first golfer from his country to qualify for last year’s edition in Kohler, Wisconsin; the dane Thomas Björn, winner of 15 Circuit and Ryder tournaments in 1997, 2002 and 2014 and as captain of the European team of the Paris’2018 edition. They will also be your countrymen Thornbjorn Olesenwho played and won the 2018 Ryder Cup, the Scotsman Stephen Gallacher, winner of five DP World Tour tournaments and the winning Ryder team in 2014 in Gleneagles (Scotland); and English Ross Fisheralso won 5 tournaments on the European circuit, and successfully played the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor (Wales) in 2010.

Infinitum Golf, formerly known as Lumine Golf, will replace PGA Catalunya as the venue for the Tour Qualifying School Final from 2017 to 2019. The Lakes Course is a 6,367-meter par 70 with plenty of water risk.

Finally, we should also highlight the presence of two famous Spaniards on the Tour: Madrid’s Gonzalo Fernandez Castanoat 41 years old and winner of seven DP World Tour tournaments from 2005 to 2013, regained the professional card in 2018 in this course, and his Estepona -based compatriot Alexander Canizares39 years old and has two European Tour winners, who lost his professional card and also went through this course to get it back.