{"id":7594,"date":"2019-06-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.golfinspain.es.local\/b\/2019\/06\/29\/garcia-continues-love-affair-with-valderrama\/"},"modified":"2019-11-07T11:04:51","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T10:04:51","slug":"garcia-continues-love-affair-with-valderrama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/2019\/06\/garcia-continues-love-affair-with-valderrama\/","title":{"rendered":"Garc\u00eda Continues Love Affair with Valderrama"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>There is something almost inevitable about Sergio Garc\u00eda\u2019s annual sojourn at Royal Valderrama Club. Inevitable as in\u2026 who\u2019s going to finish second? In 2011, he became the first Spaniard to win a European Tour event at Valderrama \u2013 after 16 Volvo Masters, two World Golf Championships and one Andaluc\u00eda Masters.<\/p>\n

When the event returned to the Tour calendar in 2017, he won again \u2013 and he successfully defended his title in 2018. In addition, he has 10 other top-10 finishes from 14 appearances at a course he says is his favourite in the world. After his first round this week in the newly named and upgraded Estrella Damm N.A. Andaluc\u00eda Masters, Garc\u00eda said, \u201cI love this place, there is no doubt about that. It kind of has something that helps me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For 2019, he was back in familiar territory, second one stroke behind Frenchman Victor Perez after a first round five-under 66. He found things more difficult on the second day, but a one-over 72 still left him with a share of second place, albeit four strokes adrift of the halfway leader, South Africa\u2019s Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Keeping him company, and the home country fans even happier, on 138 were local (Guadiaro) star \u00c1lvaro Quir\u00f3s and Adri Arnous.<\/p>\n

The highest world-ranked player in the field (11th), Jon Rahm was joint 23rd after opening 69-72 \u2013 a significant improvement on his debut in the 2017 edition, when he missed the cut in his first start as a professional on home Spanish soil.
\nOf the rest of the field, 2016 Spanish Open winner (also at Valderrama) Andrew \u201cBeef\u201d Johnston (70-73) had a share of 42nd place, while the only Spaniard to win (so far) on the European Tour this season, Jorge Campillo (73-71), was 55th with another local-based Spaniard, Alejandro Ca\u00f1izares (71-73), right on the weekend cut-off mark (two-over 144).<\/p>\n

Notables missing the cut included Gonzalo Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o (74-71), 2008 European Tour number one Robert Karlsson (73-72) and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal (71-77) \u2013 as well as last week\u2019s winner in Germany, Andrea Pavan (73-73).<\/p>\n

After his second round, Garc\u00eda said, \u201cObviously it was very difficult this afternoon; the greens were very firm and it got quite windy, more than yesterday afternoon. I just didn\u2019t make any putts, but I felt like I played really well under the conditions and the difficulty of the course. The way the course is playing you have to pick your spots, there are some good spots where you can be aggressive, but you also have to be a little bit careful. It\u2019s always great to play in Spain. Playing in front of Spanish people is amazing; I always enjoy it, it\u2019s one of my favourite things, and thanks to that I\u2019ve been very successful in Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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