The Portugal Masters This week celebrates its fifteenth edition, all consecutive since the premiere of this tournament on the European circuit calendar in 2007. Not bad at all, if we take into account that it has never stopped being held and has had to endure that financial crisis that hit the world between 2008 and 2014, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. It is true that in the beginning the event showed a much more glamorous profile, with a prize pool of three million euros and the assured presence of a good bunch of top-tier players, but it is no small matter that this tournament remains at waiting for better times, while Portugal Tourism, the main sponsor, assesses whether or not to take a step forward again.
The scene has always been the same, the Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course from Vilamoura, although along the way it also changed its name. And only three players, present this week, will be able to boast of having played each and every one of the fifteen editions that are now being held: Alvaro Quiros, Raphael Jacquelin and Robert Rock. Curiously, this week we have fifteen players who were present in the first edition, 2007 (Quirós, Ross Fisher, Hanson, Lima, Wilson, Warren, Bjorn, Jacquelin, Gallacher, Bland, Storm, Rock, Santos, Howell and Figueiredo ), but only the three mentioned were punctual to the appointment each year.
Among all of them, as well as the total number of players who have ever gone through this tournament, the Spanish Alvaro Quiros He is the one who has played the most rounds of competition on the Vilamoura route, a total of 48 in the fourteen editions already held. The one from Guadiaro, in addition, has not played more rounds of competition in any other tournament in his long career. And only in the Spanish Open has he played any more edition (16), since he came to play it as an amateur, although he adds fewer rounds (44).
It is true that Álvaro won the Portugal Masters in 2008, the second most powerful edition in the history of the tournament, if we stick to the SOF scale of the world ranking, but neither can the Portugal Masters be attributed a ‘fetish tournament’ status in its career. In fact, the only top ten he has achieved in the Algarve was that first place. But in no case could it be said that he had done very badly, since he has up to six places in the top 25 and his average number of strokes in the 48 rounds of competition he has signed at Dom Pedro is 69.5 strokes, a record remarkable.
The truth is that in these fifteen years the Dom Pedro it has hardly changed. In 2012, hole 3, which was a par 5, began to be played as a long par 4 of about 440 meters, going from par 72 to par 71. In addition, a few editions ago another tee was released on hole 12, par 5, that it modified it sensibly, adding something more than forty meters of distance. And few more modifications, to say none. Nevertheless, Álvaro Quirós puts on the table some nuance. “The course we played in the first editions was different, especially because you had to take the fairway to avoid getting into trouble, since the rough penalized a lot. This year, however, as has been the case for a long time, the rough is not intimidating. Of course, the greens this week are very good. For all this, it seems to me that whoever wants to be up on Sunday will have to do an average of four or five less per lap each day, ”he explains.
In fact, why be deceived, many times it has been like this: of the fourteen editions already contested, in half of them it was necessary to reach -20 or exceed this record to claim victory, although it is very true that the rough is not what was. The wind is going to blow this week, especially tomorrow, Thursday, but without ever exceeding 25 kilometers per hour. And no water is expected, excellent news at this time of year in Vilamoura, where the tournament was reduced to two rounds in 2014 due to water, in mid-October.
We have eight Spaniards in the fight. Quiros, for example, he arrives at the appointment with a renewed and hopeful profile, after a week of remarkable results and splendid sensations in Mallorca. The Andalusian is playing his full playing rights on the circuit for 2022, although he will still have one more chance next week in Dubai. In the same case is Pep Anglés, while Sebas Garcia Rodriguez He must defend his position in this event (he is currently in 121st place in the Race, which would help him to maintain a solid category), because at the moment he has no entry into Dubai next week. To do this, he had to give up the place he had earned in Mayakoba and, therefore, a tempting debut on the PGA Tour.
One more piece of information, to finish. In the fourteen already disputed editions of the Portugal Masters only one player has won more than once, specifically two, and it was the English Tom Lewis (2011 and 2018), which is not present this week. Of the rest of the past winners, there are seven who could join Lewis’s club this week. Namely: Alex Levy, Andy Sullivan, Padraig Harrington, Lucas Bjerregaard, Steven Brown and George Coetzee, in addition to Álvaro Quirós, of course, although Guadiaro’s plan continues to be precisely that of not starting to do accounts in the future or look further beyond the next blow I have in hand.
