Alfredo García Heredia overcame the competition of all his rivals and the omnipresent and uncomfortable presence of the wind to become the 2011 Spanish professional champion.
The Asturian golfer knocked down one by one all the obstacles in a tournament strongly conditioned by the adverse weather conditions, handicaps of diverse nature that reached their maximum expression in the last round, air moving at more than 50 km/h that turned each of the strokes used to complete the course of El Valle into an epic feat.
Next to him, also special protagonist of a grandiloquent confrontation, Agustín Domingo, second classified at two strokes, an intense duel resolved by minimal nuances to which deserved importance must be granted given the windy conditions in which all executed their work on the fairways and greens of the Murcian course.
Scenario of historic feats in the recent past -when Sebastián García Grout completed it with 58 strokes, 13 under par! in this same tournament in 2009-, El Valle, allied with the wind, offered its fiercest face, a sum of adversities that magnify the results under par achieved by the aforementioned Alfredo García Heredia, Domingo Hospital and Jesús María Arruti, a candidate for victory at the beginning of the day -he was one stroke behind both- but a luxury partner from the 11th hole, when a double bogey due to the perverse effect of the wind definitively took him out of the fight for the title.
Subjected to a mutual and fierce marking, Agustín Domingo opted at first for regularity, seven consecutive pars before registering the first birdie of the day on his scorecard.
Meanwhile, Alfredo García Heredia followed a more tortuous but effective path, an initial error compensated with a birdie on the second hole before riding to victory thanks to his successes on the par holes, birdies on the 6th, 8th and 10th, a sum of brilliant actions that placed him in the lead.
Agustín Domingo counterattacked strongly -birdie on the 13th-, a hit that prompted an immediate response from Alfredo García Heredia, three birdies in four holes that made the Barcelona golfer’s efforts to reverse a destiny already written at that moment sterile.
On his way to triumph, the new champion added a touch of suspense when, from the tee, he sent the ball out of bounds on the last hole, a defective action compensated in a big way, a textbook approach shot, immune to the 50 km/h wind, which left the ball barely two meters from the flag. Fine stroke with the putt and in. Period and end. With the wind’s permission.
FINAL RANKING
1.- Alfredo García Heredia 274 (67+74+66+66+67)
2.- Agustín Domingo 276 (70+67+70+69)
3.- Jesús Maria Arruti 281 (66+72+70+73)
4.- Carlos Rodiles 286 (72+67+71+76)
5.- Manuel Quirós 287 (76+70+69+72)
+Sergio Gutiérrez 287 (72+72+71+72)
+Miguel Ángel Martín 287 (70+70+72+75)
+.- Iñaki Alustiza 287 (65+75+71+76)
+Luis Claverie 287 (69+72+69+77)
AT THE MICROPHONE
Alfredo García Heredia: “I am very satisfied with my game on a day like this. To make 10 under par in these circumstances is very good. My goal this year is to pass the American School, I’m going there on Wednesday, and to do it after playing like this, in bad conditions, is very good. Now I will get there in good shape and let whatever happens happen happen. It has been very nice to play the tournament with a good friend like Agustín Domingo. I think people have enjoyed this mano a mano, which has fallen on my side as it could have fallen on his. At the expense of what happens in the United States, I think that the season, in game, is being quite good. Another thing is the results, which in the European Tour have not been too good, among other things”.
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