Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters Tournament champion and The Ryder Cup’s leading points scorer, will host the Andalucía Valderrama Masters with his Foundation this week. Here is what you need to know ahead of Thursday’s first round.
Treble is on for Sergio
Garcia will hope to complete a hat-trick of Andalucía Valderrama Masters titles this week. The Spaniard won the second edition of the event in 2011, and also triumphed 12 months ago, claiming his third title in an unforgettable 2017 – he also won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the Masters, his first Major title.
Victorious Valderrama
Real Club Valderrama was the first venue in mainland Europe to host The Ryder Cup, when it welcomed Team Europe and Team USA to Andalucía in 1997. Team Europe, under the captaincy of the legendary Seve Ballesteros, reigned victorious 14.5 – 13.5. The victory was Europe’s first of six consecutive wins on European soil, a streak which includes their latest triumph at Le Golf National last month.
Ryder Cup feel
The Ryder Cup feel continues this week through a field featuring many from Team Europe, including the Captain Thomas Bjørn. The Dane is joined by three of his Vice-Captains in Padraig Harrington, Robert Karlsson and Lee Westwood, while 2012’s winning Captain José María Olazábal will also be teeing it up in his homeland.
Joining Garcia at Real Club Valderrama are fellow ‘Miracle of Medinah’ stars Nicolas Colsaerts and Peter Hanson, as well as Stephen Gallacher and Edoardo Molinari, who both featured in winning sides in 2014 and 2010 respectively.
More to life than golf
The Sergio Garcia Foundation will host the Andalucía Valderrama Masters for a second successive time. Garcia set up his charitable foundation in 2002 to help economically-deprived children, both through funding projects and through increased access to sport.
All funds raised this week will go towards an interior design project for an X-ray unit in the Hospital Universitario La Paz, in Madrid.
Beef back for more
Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston returns to Real Club Valderrama where he won his debut European Tour title in 2016. The Englishman, who graduated to the European Tour the previous year after topping the European Challenge Tour Rankings, lifted the Open de España after rounds of 67-74-74-70.
Last season Johnston returned to southern Spain to defend his title before finishing a very respectable tied 23rdat Valderrama, and now he is aiming to conjure those winning memories from two years ago.
