Twenty-one professional golfers of great projection -ten women and eleven men-, some of them protagonists of very good results in the different Circuits despite their obvious youth, integrate the Pro Spain Team 2019 Program, an initiative of the RFEG, in collaboration with the Autonomous Federations, which pursues the training and assistance to elite golf players in their first years in the professional field.
The list of golfers selected by the RFEG Professionals Committee to form part of the 2019 Pro Spain Team Program includes, in the men’s category, Pep Anglés, Scott Fernández, Emilio Cuartero, Daniel Berná, Iván Cantero, Mario Galiano, Javier Sainz -all of them already selected in the 2018 Pro Spain Team Program promotion- and the new additions of David Borda, Santiago Tarrío, Ángel Hidalgo and Manuel Elvira. Carlos Pigem, Adriá Arnaus, Jacobo Pastor and Borja Virto have dropped out with respect to 2018.
In addition, in the women’s category, María Parra, Nuria Iturrios, Marta Sanz, Patricia Sanz, Noemí Jiménez, Luna Sobrón, Elia Folch, Silvia Bañón, Harang Lee and Fátima Fernández, all of them already involved in 2018, are part of the 2019 Pro Spain Team Program, with Natalia Escuriola and Camilla Hedberg dropping out.
In total, a uniform group of golfers, all of them characterized by an outstanding career, who in 2019 have a help that facilitates their transition from the amateur stage and enables a faster incorporation to the most important Professional Circuits.
It should be noted that in the present group of members of the Pro Spain Team 2019 there is a golfer with a conditional card in the LPGA, Luna Sobrón. The Balearic golfer will combine presence in the LET -along with five other players- and in the Symetra Tour, where six more will fight to improve their category during this year.
In the men’s category, there are two golfers with cards on the European Tour -Iván Cantero and David Borda-, four on the Challenge Tour -Scott Fernández, Pep Anglés, Emilio Cuartero and Santiago Tarrío-, one on the PGA Latinoamericano -Mario Galiano- and four on the Alps Tour.
Ten editions of a successful program
Gonzaga Escauriaza, President of the RFEG, pointed out that “many achievements have been made over the years. The objectives we thought for this program, which can be summarized in one, that the boys and girls mature as soon as possible as professional golfers, have been more than fulfilled. We see that there is a kind of corporatism among the players who are in the program, and that is good, that they help each other. I wish it to be an absolutely wonderful season for everyone.”
The next speaker was Jaime Salaverri, Vice President of the RFEG and President of the Technical Committee of Professionals: “The direct budget of the Program is around 360,000 euros, but the indirect budget is much higher, because for example, three Challenges are made every year to have invitations that are then distributed. Deciding on places and invitations is very complicated. We are happy to have these twenty-one players here because we have a lot of confidence in them”.
The presentation of the players of the 2019 Pro Spain Team Program was given by Ignacio Gervás, Technical Director of the RFEG, who recalled that “this is the tenth promotion of a Program to which the best players arrive. They started with nine players and now there are twenty-one, and this is because we believe in it. This year there is something new, for example, we are going to promote technical assistance to the players. In this line, we will send our coach Marcelo Prieto to the United States in different weeks to give support to the girls who need it”.
Ignacio Gervás went on to say that “this year Santiago Tarrío and David Borda, who last year reached milestones important enough to give them a place in the Program, have joined the team. They will be a great contribution to the team from their experience, a way of opening the range, but with the same idea, that the players become established in the Circuits”.
Next to speak was Luna Sobrón, one of the ten female members of the Pro Spain Team, protagonist of a remarkable season opener on the Ladies European Tour. “Being part of this program is a great illusion. Here I have developed as a player and I have been achieving my goals. This year I aspire to play as much as I can to reach the elite of golf, which is my goal”.
For his part, the Navarrese David Borda, new player of the Pro Spain Team that this season disputes the European Tour after a tremendously productive year 2018, stressed that “I am not a junior. I’ve been trying to reach the elite for quite a few years and I have to seize my moment. Last year was very good. The references I had of the Pro Spain Team Program were very good thanks, especially thanks to the players from Navarre who have passed through here: Beatriz Recari, Carlota Ciganda or Borja Virto. Everything they have told me is good. This year the help that the Program is going to give me is going to be very good. The technical support is very important. In our clubs we don’t have the facilities that we have now”.
Financial, training and management aids
All the members of the Pro Spain Team 2019 benefit from a Program that establishes financial aids -depending on the Circuit they usually play-, training aids -evaluation by TPI technicians, physical trainers, etc- and management aids -invitations to tournaments, search for sponsors-. They can also use the Golf Center of Excellence located in the practice area of the National Center, a model facility that is at the forefront of world golf.
It should be noted that, in return for the technical and financial assistance provided, the selected players undertake, among other things, to dedicate several days to RFEG initiatives (ProAms, concentrations of the national amateur teams, etc.), as well as, in the future, to participate in the Spanish Open or Spanish Professional Championships whenever their obligations allow them to do so.
Azahara Muñoz, Carlota Ciganda, Jorge Campillo, Ignacio Elvira, Adrián Otaegui, Borja Virto, Pedro Oriol or Adriá Arnaus, to name a few examples, are a clear example of sporting projection from their training at the grassroots level to their inclusion in a Program that this year has among its members golfers who are already achieving very good results in the different Professional Circuits.
The generosity of Adriá Arnaus
Special mention for the generosity of Adriá Arnaus, a player of enormous projection, who in 2018, the year in which he was a member of the Pro Spain Team Program, won the Grand Final of the Challenge Tour before getting the 2019 European Tour card and who has returned the economic aid received to contribute to the dissemination and growth of the Program in gratitude for the support received by the RFEG since its earliest days, an initiative already carried out at the time by Azahara Muñoz, Carlota Ciganda, Belén Mozo, Jorge Campillo, Adrián Otaegui, Ignacio Elvira and Carlos Pigem.
The selected professional golfers will receive the aid provided for in the Pro Spain Team Program -which they return partially or totally depending on their income in the different Circuits- after signing an Agreement in which they commit to collaborate with the RFEG (and in its case the Autonomous Federation that supports them) in different initiatives. The external name of the group is Pro Spain Team 2019.
PRO SPAIN TEAM MEMBERS – Promotion 2019
María Parra, Nuria Iturrios, Marta Sanz, Patricia Sanz, Noemí Jiménez, Luna Sobrón, Elia Folch, Silvia Bañón, Harang Lee, Fátima Fernández, Pep Anglés, Scott Fernández, Emilio Cuartero, Daniel Berná, Iván Cantero, Mario Galiano, Javier Sainz, David Borda, Santiago Tarrío, Ángel Hidalgo and Manuel Elvira.
Photos: Luis Corralo
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