© Getty Images Sport – Kevin C. Cox / Staff
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The Portuguese Ricardo Gouveia, thanks to a decisive change of pace in the final nine holes, won the Hainan Open with 272 (67 68 70 67, -16), played on the course of the Danzhou Ancient Saltern Golf Club (par 72), on Hainan Island in China.
It was the penultimate tournament of the Challenge Tour which defined the first 45 players of the Road To Mallorca (order of merit) who were admitted to the final event, the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final (2-5 November, Mallorca, Spain) where , at the end of the race, the top 20 on the money list will have the ‘card’ for the DP World Tour 2024.
Ricardo Gouveia, results
There will also be four Italians at the Grand Final: Francesco Laporta, among the protagonists of the tournament in China where he ranked third with 276 (-12), preceded in second by the Swiss Joel Girrbach (275, -13), Matteo Manassero, 13th with 279 (-9), Andrea Pavan, 18th with 280 (-8), and Lorenzo Scalise, 29th with 282 (-6).
And they will all be in a privileged position because they are positioned among the top 20 of the Road To Mallorca. Scalise (6th), Pavan (7th) and Manassero (8th) are practically certain to change tours, while Laporta has made a big step forward, from 19th to 15th, who can defend the position from the top of 124 points margin over the 21st place.
Ricardo Gouveia, a 32-year-old from Lisbon, signed his sixth title on the circuit for a palmarès which also includes two successes in Italy (EMC Golf Challenge Open, Olgiata GC, 2014, and Italian Challenge, GC Margara, 2021).
He won the match with a 67 (-5) built in the first part of the course with two birdies and a bogey and then with four birdies in the return which made the difference. With the title he received a check for 75,847 euros out of a prize pool of around 474,000 euros (500,000 dollars the official figure), but above all he rose from 25th to 10th place in the Race To Mallorca, practically mortgaging one of the ‘cards’
Laporta was joined by the English Steven Brown and Will Enefer and the Chinese amateur Wenyi Ding, therefore in seventh position with 277 (-11) the other Chinese Chuan-lin Jian and in eighth with 278 (-10) the Spaniard Manuel Elvira, new leader of the Road To Mallorca, the Englishman Brandon Robinson Thompson, the Frenchman Tom Vaillant, the Northern Irishman Jonathan Caldwell and the Chinese Bowen Xiao.
Laporta (70 68 68 70), started in eighth place and with four birdies on the first eight holes placed his bid for the title, but succumbed in the last five, losing two shots (two birdies, two bogeys, one double bogey) for 70 (-2), a final that does not affect his excellent overall performance.
Manassero (70 71 70 68) recovered 16 places with a 68 (-4) due to four birdies without bogeys and Pavan (70 67 72 71) shot a 71 (-1) with three birdies and two bogeys. For Scalise (74 68 67 73) 73 (+1) strokes with two birdies and three bogeys. Filippo Celli made the cut, 71st with 145 (72 73, +1).
