Fresh off the back of last week’s victory at the Abu Dhabi Challenge, Ricardo Gouveia is eager to keep the ball rolling with a strong showing at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, the home of this week’s UAE Challenge.
The Portuguese, who lost his full playing privileges on the DP World Tour last season, eagled the final hole at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Sunday to win by two strokes as the Challenge Tour returned to the UAE for the first time since 2018.
The triumph – his sixth on the circuit – catapulted the 31-year-old to ninth in the season-long Road to Mallorca, with the top 20 players on the Rankings securing a DP World Tour card come the end of the season.
“The win takes a bit of pressure off on the Challenge Tour side of things, but I’m still going to play quite a few tournaments out here,” said Gouveia.
“I’ll keep doing the same things (this week), prepare the same way, work hard in the gym and make sure my energy levels are 100% going into Thursday. I think I did that really well last week. Not overdoing it is going to be really important with this heat.”
The shot that set up the win 👌@MelinhoGolf with an early contender for shot of the season 📹#AbuDhabiChallenge pic.twitter.com/DH7shP6ahI
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) May 1, 2023
This week’s host venue, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, is hosting a European Tour group sanctioned event for the very first time, with the Gary Player-designed track set to offer a very different challenge to that of the National Course last week.
“Yesterday I chipped and putted on the back nine – the course looks amazing,” said Gouveia, who topped the Challenge Tour Rankings in 2015.
“The conditions are perfect, it’s a completely different type of course to Abu Dhabi Golf Club. This is more links-style golf, it’s going to be windy. There’s a lot of undulations on the greens, so I think approach play is going to be important.
“Course management will be key. Where you put the ball will play a big part, especially going into the greens. There’s going to be some tricky pins, so you need to stay really patient and committed to your game plan and just put the ball in in the right spots. I’m looking forward to the week.”
A whole host of former DP World Tour winners will join Gouveia at the Arabian Gulf’s first beachfront course, including 2011 DP World Tour Championship winner Alvaro Quiros, last week’s runner-up Tom Lewis and Matteo Manassero, who remains the youngest winner in DP World Tour history with victory in the 2010 Castello Masters at 17 years and 188 days.
The back-to-back events in Abu Dhabi have been made possible due to the long-term partnership between the European Tour group and the Emirates Golf Federation, in addition to the support of the host venues Abu Dhabi Golf Club and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, along with sponsors ARENA, Phoenix Capital and Al Laith.
