Tano Goya qualified for the PGA Tour and will join Emiliano Grillo and Augusto Núñez

Stanislaus Goyadefinitely known as “Tano” in international golf for several years now, achieved the goal he had pursued all his life: get to the PGA Tour. He achieved membership after finishing 5th in the final tournament of the Korn Ferry Tour, which concluded this Sunday in Newburgh, Indiana.

The player from Alta Gracia signed a final round of 71 strokes (-1) and totaled 271 (-17): that position in the top 5 it was equivalent to finishing 19th in the final ranking and being among the 25 who obtained the card in this last qualifying section. It should be noted that after the end of the regular season, another 25 players had graduated to the PGA Tour, including Augusto Núñez. In this way, Goya, Núñez from Tucumán and Emiliano Grillo from Chaco -uninterrupted member since 2015- will represent Argentina in the 2022/2023 season of the maximum tour, which will begin on the 16th of this month in Napa, California. In fact, Grillo himself was quick to welcome him in a tweet: “See you in Napa @Tanogoya!!”

“I got to a point where I considered maybe doing something else, giving up golf, but something inside me said, ‘No, I went ahead and here today, tomorrow I have a chance to make it. I’ve worked my whole life for that and I’m ready”, declared Goya excitedly 18 holes before the culmination of the tournament at the Victoria National Golf Club. Finally, after a last round with a share of suffering – he came to be over the limit of the qualifiers after a bogey on the 12th hole – he completed the goal at 34 years old.

Goya emerged at the end of the 2000s as a great project for Argentine golf. He won two titles on the European Challenge Tour at 19 and the following year, only in his sixth participation in the major circuit of the Old Continent, he achieved his first victory, in Madeira (Portugal). However, he did not manage to grow from there, he lost his status and began a long period of counter-marches, in which he paraded through several circuits without settling in any of them.

Although he came to participate in three majors (British Open 2010 and 2013, and US Open 2013, in which he did not make the cut), the Cordovan never revalidated everything he promised since he was a great amateur trained in the Argentine Association of Golf. “I went through a lot of ups and downs; I had a quick take-off, but being alone, I made decisions that sometimes weren’t the best and it showed in my performance, especially after two or three years. I went through a period of great learning that will help me in my future as a golfer”, he reflected to LA NACION a few years ago.

After living in Madrid, Marbella and London, where he was married to the English golfer Henni Zuël, until they divorced in 2018 and decided to return to his native Alta Gracia. Before the start of the pandemic, he moved again and settled in Ponte Vedra Beach, where he began the definitive path to consolidation as an elite golfer. Now his career will find much broader horizons.