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It wasn\u2019t so long ago that Gonzalo Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o was 27th in the world rankings, having won seven times on the European Tour. Then he decided to move from Madrid to Florida with his wife and three young children to fulfil his goal of playing regularly against the best players in the world on the US PGA Tour. <\/p>\n
Now 36, the Spaniard had won as a European Tour rookie at the KLM Open, and followed that up with victories in each of the next three years, also gaining access to the majors and World Golf Championships.<\/p>\n
On one occasion at Doral, in 2013, Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o and his wife Alicia Carriles were invited to dinner at Key Biscayne. Interviewed this October for an article by Associated Press, he recalled, \u2018\u201dAs soon as I drove onto the island I said, \u2018If we ever move to the U.S., it\u2019s going to be right here.'\u201d Two weeks later, Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o tied for third at Bay Hill, he also gained a 10th place finish in the U.S. Open at Merion that summer, and he had won enough money to secure a PGA Tour card. His wife started looking for houses in Key Biscayne. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then,\u201d reported Associated Press, \u201cthe American dream took a detour. The Spaniard, so congenial and considerate that he once was referred to as the Steve Stricker of the European Tour, narrowly kept his card his first season. He wasn\u2019t so fortunate the next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that wasn\u2019t even the low point. Earlier this year on the Web.com Tour, he went two months without playing because he couldn\u2019t get in tournaments. He tried Monday qualifying for PGA Tour events, and that didn\u2019t work, either. The turning point came at his worst moment. He missed qualifying for the Puerto Rico Open in a play-off, and sought help with a sports psychologist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dThe way I was treating myself on the course, the things I was saying to myself on the course, I\u2019d had enough,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o said. \u201dI remember thinking on the plane to Miami, this has to change. You get down on yourself. This is a tough game. There\u2019s a lot of time between shots, and a lot of thinking between shots. And when things aren\u2019t going your way, it\u2019s tough.\u201d <\/p>\n
Going into the final month, he wasn\u2019t even eligible for the Web.com Tour Finals until a couple of good finishes. In the finals, he started with a tie for 16th and a tie for ninth, and he was back on the main tour. <\/p>\n
\u201cFern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o missed the cut by two shots in the Safeway Open (in mid-October). This was no time to panic. It\u2019s only the start of this second chance. He hopes the rough patch is behind him. His three children \u2013 Gonzalo (seven), Lola (six) and Alicia (four) \u2013 love their new school and new home. And while last year was a grind, he\u2019s had nothing but support from his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dI\u2019m sure she\u2019s had her moments, too,\u201d he said. \u201dIt\u2019s tough when you make such a change, moving overseas, leaving your family and friends behind. It hasn\u2019t been easy for any of us. When things are going great, it helps. When you\u2019re on the other side, it\u2019s hard. If she\u2019s ever been down, she never showed it to me.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to Associated Press, he plans to play a full autumn schedule, \u201cbut he won\u2019t fall into the trap of playing so much golf that his mind gets stale\u201d. He had a brief break this summer, when the children stayed in Spain and he took his wife to Pebble Beach between Web.com Tour stops. <\/p>\n
\u201dCan you imagine? I\u2019ve never been to Pebble Beach before,\u201d he said. \u201dWe just walked around. I didn\u2019t play golf. But let me tell you something, that\u2019s one tournament I\u2019m never going to miss. What an amazing part of the world.\u201d <\/p>\n
As the article noted, the easy road back for Gonzalo Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o, after losing his PGA Tour card, would have been to return to the comfort of Spain. There was another stop in Wichita, Kansas. He made his first trip to Beachwood, Ohio. <\/p>\n
This is the travel schedule on the Web.com Tour, looked upon as the primary path for young players to reach the PGA Tour. The average purse is about $625,000, which isn\u2019t even second-place money on the PGA Tour. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has seen more of the world than he intended when he came over to America. All because he wasn\u2019t ready to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It wasn\u2019t so long ago that Gonzalo Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o was 27th in the world rankings, having won seven times on the European Tour. Then he decided to move from Madrid to Florida with his wife and three young children to fulfil his goal of playing regularly against the best players in the world on the US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}