Four Spanish golfers -Adrián Otaegui, Eduardo de la Riva, Pedro Oriol and Borja Virto- have successfully passed the final of the qualifying school of the Men’s European Tour at the PGA Catalunya Resort in Girona, thus obtaining the card to play the top continental circuit in 2015.
Adrián Otaegui, who like De la Riva reached the final after losing his card a few weeks ago, signed the best possible finish with a sixth round of 67 strokes (-5) to finish with -13 total in fifth place. Sharing this position, De la Riva himself maintained the same level as in the previous five rounds.
Two other members of the 2014 Pro Spain Program, Pedro Oriol and Borja Virto, also shared the same position; in their case, eighteenth (-8). The player from Madrid recovered perfectly from a complicated fifth round (77, +5), while the player from Navarre confirmed all the good things he showed in his spectacular second appearance (63, -9). Both finished with rounds of 70 strokes (-2).
In total, 33 players have obtained the European Tour card.
The cross of the day was for the Valencian Carlos del Moral, who started the morning in eleventh place but lost the card to deliver a 77 (+5) to stay four strokes short of the target. Amateur Emilio Cuartero (T58, -1) and Álvaro Velasco (T72, +4) also made the cut.
The three players from the second phase of the school – Borja Virto, Carlos Pigem and the amateur Emilio Cuartero – Eduardo de la Riva, Carlos del Moral, Ignacio Elvira, Ignacio Garrido, José Manuel Lara, Adrián Otaegui, Antonio Hortal, Pedro Oriol and Álvaro Velasco started playing at the PGA Catalunya Resort.
In addition, from the 18th to the 21st the qualifying school of the Champions Tour -the senior circuit of the PGA- in which a Spanish player, the Canary Islander Pedro Linhart, was involved, will be held. After his first round of 85 strokes, Linhart withdrew from the event.
Photo: Adrián Otaegui
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