A victory is irrefutable when it occurs after leading from the first to the last day, when it is nine strokes ahead of the most direct rival, when the birdies are five times more than the bogeys and when the control of the scene is total. Such was the triumph of Alfredo García-Heredia in the Philips Hue Spanish Men’s Professional Championship held at the Logroño Golf Course with the Asturian as the undisputed protagonist.
Alfredo García-Heredia’s third victory -the first one dates back to 2011 and the second one to 2014- has come by demolition. The player from Gijón has performed like a sledgehammer that day after day has been piercing the classification and the morale of his rivals, who in the last day, especially from hole 9 onwards, have competed for another prize, that of the mortals.
The stellar match brought together Alfredo García-Heredia with Jacobo Pastor and José Luis Adarraga, responsible, together with Ángel Hidalgo, Pol Bech and company, for putting pressure on the intractable leader with early birdies to narrow the classification. But the Asturian golfer was not about to be intimidated: birdie at 1 to pour water on the fire.
Jacobo Pastor, however, contributed hits on 3 and 5 in a day with much more wind than the previous ones, a fact that could fuel a hypothetical comeback. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Alfredo García-Heredia, with the tranquility and serenity of someone who is drinking a good Rioja with a pincho in Laurel Street, took advantage of the par 3s of his first round to bring the -20 to the board. With all the precautions that must always be taken in golf, the matter was more than on track.
In the second round, the player from Gijón hardly seemed to suffer the rigors of the strong wind that arose. In fact, his bogey at the 10th was more than compensated with birdies at the 17th and 18th, where a well-deserved champagne bath awaited him.
Fierce battle for second place
The battle for second place -being runner-up in Spain is not something that is within the reach of everyone- was especially entertaining. With Jacobo Pastor out of the game after a sequence of bogeys from the 6th that dropped him in the standings, a name that had emerged as a dark horse, Carlos Balmaseda.
The Spaniard plugged the birdie machine, seven, and shot up to -11, putting in serious trouble the players who had started the morning with two digits under par on the scoreboard. The wind was not an impediment in an almost perfect round of golf: “one of those days when everything comes out”, he said exultantly in the clubhouse.
The best round of the day was not enough to tie the second position, José Luis Adarraga did not miss the opportunity to repeat the same result as the one harvested in the 2016 edition in Doñana (Huelva), but the third shared with Pro Spain Manuel Elvira, whose week is very meritorious: he rebounded from a 74 start with rounds of 67, 68 and 68 strokes.
The week has also left very positive readings for many players, from the fluency with which young professionals such as Ángel Hidalgo, Manuel Elvira, Alfonso Buendía and Víctor Pastor have managed in the elite, to the solidity without expiration date of senior players like Carlos Suneson and Santi Luna. These players, plus the Pedro Oriol, Javier Colomo, Pablo Martín,… have adorned with a shower of birdies the beautiful story of a Philips Hue Spanish Men’s Professional Championship 2019 that will be remembered for the exhibition of Alfredo García-Heredia. Undisputed champion.
Five years later, Alfredo strikes again
Alfredo García-Heredia arrived in Logroño as one of the ten players who already knew what it was to be champion of Spain. His first triumph came in 2011 at the Murcian course of El Valle, and the second in 2014 at the Talayuela Golf course (Cáceres). On both occasions – he won by two and one stroke, respectively – he suffered much more than in this one.
If Alfredo García-Heredia and José Luis Adarraga agreed on one thing in the press room at the end of the event, it was one thing: the Logroño Golf Course is one of the best they have played this year. “The greens were perfect, at the level of a European Tour event”, said the Galician.
Support for a prestigious tournament
Apart from the main sponsorship of Philips Hue, this Spanish Men’s Professional Championship has had the contribution of the City Council of Logroño, the Royal Spanish Golf Federation and Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, as well as the support of the Consejo Superior de Deportes and the Federación Riojana de Golf.
Also collaborating in the tournament were Grupo Mahou-San Miguel, Solán de Cabras, Kyocera, LaLigaSports, GinCubical, Coca Cola, Ramondín, Srixon, Riauto and Bodegas Franco-Españolas. The tournament was organized by the company Gambito Golf.
FINAL CLASSIFICATION
1.- Alfredo García-Heredia 267 (65+66+68+68+68)
2.- José Luis Adarraga 276 (70+68+67+71)
3.- Carlos Balmaseda 277 (71+67+73+66)
+.- Manuel Elvira 277 (74+67+68+68+68)
5.- Alfonso Buendía 278 (72+66+67+73)
+.- Pedro Oriol 278 (70+68+68+72)
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