Spectacular victory of Julien Guerrier in the tenth edition of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters held at the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande. The tournament had to reach 81 holes (72 regular holes and nine playoffs) to decide on the side of the 39-year-old French player, who thus debuts his DP World Tour record.
In its second tournament as host of the DP World Tour, the course of the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande offered an impeccable presentation and served as the setting for an exciting and tense duel between Jorge Campillo and Julien Guerrier on the decisive day.
The nerves, always present but in the background and controlled for the best players in the ranking for much of the tournament, were finally reflected in the card of Guerrier and Campillo (who took 66 holes to sign his first bogey) and the alternation of hits and misses led to a tie at -21 at the end of the tournament. Afterwards, the tension reappeared and was shared equally between the two players who were battling for the title, and finally it was Guerrier who was able to release it accompanied by tears, reaching the triumph in the ninth round of the extension.
“It has taken me a long time to get a win and today I had to work very hard to get it. I kept my patience, I know how good a player Campillo is and I’m very happy,” explained Guerrier, who mentioned how much he had been inspired by the victories of some of his teammates. “The latest victories of my compatriots Ravetto and Lacroix have helped me, I thought about them and said to myself “I can do it too”.”
It is inevitable that the other side of the coin was offered by Jorge Campillo, who fought until the end and had the victory in his hand in some of the holes of the playoff. Even so, the player from Extremadura was satisfied in spite of the final setback.
“It’s a shame to lose a tournament in your country, but we’ll keep trying. I’ll have more chances, I’m disappointed now, but it’s been a good week,” recapped Campillo.
“What made me most angry was the short putt I missed to win, it fell more than I thought. I played well on the 17th, I shot well, for my taste I played better than him on all the holes except the first and the last, but that’s how it is, I had opportunities to win and I didn’t.”
Behind, Daniel Brown finished two strokes behind, Rasmus Højgaard and Jordan Smith three and Jon Rahm, although he anticipated after the third round that his mission was almost impossible, fought hard to try to sow doubts in the rivals that preceded him, and finished sixth with -17, not so far from signing another victory in Spain.
“I have not been entirely comfortable this week, far from my best golf. It bothers me a little to be up there but not to win, it is what it is,” summed Rahm.
“The holes that seem a little easier, when you are trying to win, they become more difficult, you hesitate more and it happens on a course that is easy to make birdies. You tense up a little bit and someone comes from behind and makes a few. I was far away, minus 10 today was complicated, but I tried”.
David Puig also matched Jon Rahm’s -5 on the day, the best round among Spaniards, to move up to twelfth place with -13, while Angel Hidalgo again subtracted two strokes from the field to finish twentieth with -10 overall. Also passing the cut were Eugenio Chacarra and Adrián Otaegui (twenty-eighth with -9), Pablo Larrazábal and Adri Arnaus (-4), Álex del Rey (par) and Sebastián García (+5).
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INSIDE THE ROPES
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A caddie used to winning marathons
This playoff between Guerrier and Campillo is already part of the history of the DP World Tour with its duration of nine holes, being the longest along with the 1989 Dutch Open (victory of José María Olazábal) and the 2013 Spanish Open (with the triumph of Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin). Precisely, a curious connection arises with the latter, and it is that the caddie of the Frenchman in that tournament in El Saler was the same one with whom Julien Guerrier won in this EDAM 2024: Chris Lilley. A coincidence that surely did not go unnoticed by the champion and he could rely on this veteran caddy with experience in emerging triumphant from the agonizing endings.
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A victory with many gifts for Guerrier
230 tournaments Julien Guerrier has had to play Julien Guerrier to open his DP World Tour record, but the wait was worth it because there are many things that the Frenchman achieves with this victory. He achieves his best position in the world ranking (top 110 and his best position was 150th); he is the first Frenchman to win the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters; and he achieves the 50th French victory in the DP World Tour and the third of the season. In short, a debut in style.
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The Deputy Minister of Tourism, on the last day of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters
The Deputy Minister of Tourism and Andalucía Exterior, Víctor González, visited the last day of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters in which he highlighted the Andalusian government’s commitment to major competitions as a strategy for positioning the region “as a top-level destination” for sports tourism.
Gonzalez recalled the enormous impact of the tournament on the local, provincial and regional economy not only during the week of the tournament, since golf attracts a million visitors each year, with long average stays and a high average daily expenditure. “Golf helps to avoid seasonality, because it is possible to play practically 365 of the year in the more than 100 courses in the community.”
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The Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters, a DP World Tour tournament valid for the Race to Dubai that is held thanks to the essential collaboration of the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, is sponsored by Estrella Damm and the Junta de Andalucía, in addition to being co-financed with European funds and having been declared an event of exceptional public interest by the Government of Spain.
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