“Never stop believing”. Gonzalo Gancedo has been repeating this phrase like a mantra in recent months and he has finally achieved it. It has been at El Parador de Golf in Malaga, near his home and a few meters from the Guadalhorce course, the course where he got his teeth and learned to play golf with his good friend Pablo Martin Benavides. “Pablo is my idol next to Tiger, and he knows it. He taught me how to approach,” he says with his unmistakable smile from ear to ear minutes after winning the first event of 2017 of the Gecko Tour and the ninth of the season.
Gancedo won at El Parador with a score of 136 strokes in 36 holes. British Mike Bedford and Slovak Peter Valasek shared second place, two strokes behind the winner, while Andreas Andersson, leader of the Gecko order of merit, Rod Bastard and Ross Kellett finished fourth.
Gancedo built his victory on a superlative first round. He signed 64 strokes, with five birdies and a sensational albatross. “It was on hole 1 (the tenth of his round). I hit a great drive and a perfect 6-iron. The key was that I knew how to take advantage of the par 5’s. I took all the deuces and signed a six-under par there. Then, honestly, I think I played better today from hole 1 to 12 than yesterday, but I had several ties”, he explains.
Gonzalo was four strokes ahead with four holes to go, however, like any good first victory, he could not win without suffering. “From the 12th hole I started to swing instead of turning, which is my main problem, and I held on as best I could. I made double bogey on the 15th and on the 16th the demons appeared again. I hit a good drive, just to the left, but the bounce was very bad and it was unplayable. I had to drop and I got the par as I could. I was just thinking about finishing. When I hit the drive on the 18th hole and saw that it was the way I wanted, I knew I had won and I could enjoy it,” he said.
Gancedo’s story is a curious one. This 28-year-old from Malaga did not seriously dedicate himself to golf until he was 21 years old. “As an amateur I think I played only two championships, one in Spain and one in Andalusia. However, when I was 21, Reale arrived and decided to support me to play. What more could I ask for. They allowed me to dedicate myself to what I liked the most, which was playing golf, surrounded by these beasts, because you have to see how well everyone here plays golf,” he says.
Gonzalo began to make his way, playing tournaments, brushing against victories, but the first triumph never came. It was all in his head. “I needed to trust myself more, to believe in myself. From eight months ago I am trusting much more in myself and the results are showing. I’ve fought for the win in several Gecko and I finished sixth in the Gambit Final. And now comes the first victory. I’m very happy,” he says.
Gancedo is now experienced enough to take it step by step. So far, the first victory has been achieved. The next objective will be to look for the second. “I am very hungry, very eager to continue playing and to do well, I want to succeed, but step by step. I will continue in the Gecko, which is a great circuit and it is a pity that we Spanish professionals and sponsors do not support it more, the Gambito and what I can from the Alps and the Challenge”, he says.
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