Tomás Gouveia is looking to build on a positive outing in Scotland when he tees it up at this week’s Irish Challenge at Killeen Castle.
The Portuguese recorded his best finish since May’s Italian Challenge Open at last week’s Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A at SCHLOSS Roxburghe, with a ten under par opening round of 61 helping him to an eighth place finish.
And having returned to form on the Scottish Borders, Gouveia is looking forward to kicking on and boost his promotion chances in Ireland.
“Last week was a very good week for me, I played some great golf,” the Portuguese said.
“I haven’t been playing my best but last week for the first two rounds everything clicked so I was really happy about that."
Gouveia came close to his breakthrough HotelPlanner Tour victory at the Italian Challenge Open, finishing one-stroke back of Englishman Chris Wood at Golf Nazionale.
Now, sitting 38th on the season-long Road to Mallorca Rankings and targeting his first promotion to the DP World Tour, the Portuguese is eager to translate his recent good form into four consistent rounds of golf.
“You have to keep going for four rounds,” he added. “When you shoot ten under you must keep going and it’s tough to shoot low scores.
“I did that on Friday on what was a tough day but struggled on the Sunday but I was still pleased to be in the final group and have that experience.
“It’s all about expectations. When you shoot ten under, you’re expecting things to continue but it doesn’t happen like that. When things don’t go perfect the next day it’s tough to get over it.”
Having missed the cut at the Infortar Estonian Challenge, Gouveia took time to work on his game, looking to find the form which propelled him to his career best finish in Italy back in May.
And ahead of tackling arguably the toughest test on the 2026 Road to Mallorca schedule at Killeen Castle, the 32-year-old believes his game is in a good shape ahead of the 11th edition of the Irish Challenge.
“For me it’s the best course we play all year,” he said. “It’s the closest we get to a DP World Tour course. It’s long and the greens are very small and slopy.
“It’s in the best condition and the weather is perfect. It’s going to be a tough week and we’re going to have to play well with the shots to the greens being crucial.”
The opening round of the Irish Challenge gets under way at 7:30am local time with Gouveia teeing off alongside Northern Ireland’s Cormac Sharvin and Swede Adam Wallin at 8:40am.
