Maarten Lafeber and Lee Westwood, two outstanding champions from the last three weeks on The European Tour International Schedule, will be back in action this week at Pula Golf Club on the island in Majorca for the dual ranking Turespaña Mallorca Classic.
Lafeber became the first home winner of the Dutch Open for 56 years at Hilversumsche Golf Club in the Netherlands to move up to 25th on the Volvo Order of Merit and within sight of the precious opportunities available to players finishing in the top 20 at the end of the season.
As well as having an outstanding chance of qualifying for The Seve Trophy next month, Lafeber could play his way into the 2004 Open Golf Championship and the World Golf Championships – American Express Championship which returns to Mount Juliet in Ireland next year.
Two weeks before Lafeber’s emotional victory in front of his home supporters, Westwood completed his own moving comeback after almost three years out of the limelight. In August he won the BMW International Open in Munich then followed that up with a spectacular success in the dunhill links championship at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.
The field is one of the highest quality with so much at stake over the next few weeks. There are places to be filled in the top 60 in the Volvo Order of Merit to qualify for the Volvo Masters Andalucia at Valderrama; berths in The Seve Trophy field to be claimed; places in the top 20 and top 15 in the Volvo Order of Merit to be decided and cards to be retained for full playing exemption in 2004.
All in all, the inaugural Turespaña Mallorca Classic has all the necessary ingredients to deliver that graphic suffix in the event’s title. The field includes two of Spain’s most recent Ryder Cup players, Miguel Angel Jiménez and José Maria Olazábal, along with a host of champions, past and present, on The European Tour, including this year’s dunhill championship winner, Mark Foster of England.
Meanwhile the chase to finish in the top 15 in the European Challenge Tour Rankings is also reaching fever pitch, and the intensity is likely to become greater this week with €400,000 at stake.
Welshman Craig Williams, who captured last week’s Ryder Cup Wales Challenge in his native country, heads a strong Challenge Tour entry including the majority of the top 15 and the two players just outside that all-important dividing line, James Hepworth and Greig Hutcheon.
