Ricardo

Santos

The Portuguese player rose slowly through the Challenge Tour rankings, claimed a win on the European Tour in 2012, backed that up by finishing 80th on the Race to Dubai a year later, but lost his card and had to scrap to regain his playing rights at the top table. It took him four years, but last year’s five top ten finishes on the second tier included a win (the Swiss Challenge), second (the Czech Challenge) and third (the Rolex Trophy, back in Switzerland). He ended the year tenth in the CT rankings, but it’s been a dire return to the ET, as he’s limped to five missed cuts and just one weekend which reaped nothing better than T65 in the Mauritius Open. His ET win came at Santo Da Serra (a RTJ Sr design), he’s also landed T13 there as well as T22 at Celtic Manor (another RTJ Sr track re-designed by EGD) and his third in the Rolex Trophy was at yet another RTJ Sr layout in Geneva.

Santos, a 29-year-old Challenge Tour graduate and rookie on the European Tour, started the final round four strokes adrift of overnight leader, Carlos Del Moral of Spain. Santos then blistered Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra for a bogey-free, 9-under-par 32-31=63 to post a tournament-record 22-under 266. Sweden’s Magnus A. Carlsson finished alone in second place at 270. Del Moral closed with a 73 and settled for a share of fourth place at 272. “It is very emotional and I haven’t got the words to describe how I feel,” Santos said afterwards. “To win my first European Tour event in my own country is very special. ... It was a sensational round –- definitely the best of my career. It was amazing to have the crowds here supporting me. It would be difficult to imagine a better win than this. I didn’t have many bad moments in the round, but the supporters were always there to pick me up and keep me going. This is a huge moment in my career.”

Rookie of the Year in 2012, Santos made 65th in the Race to Dubai 12 months later, but since then it has been all downhill. 116th in 2014, 177th in 2015, the Challenge Tour since. He struggled to assert himself on the secondary circuit last year, but three top fives this year have him at 26th in the rankings so a strong push to year’s end could earn him promotion. Even better to achieve it this week, of course, on a rare (third of the year) main tour start. His form in the Czech Republic might suggest it’s possible (three top five finishes in four starts, one of them this summer; never outside T16), but he’s struggled at this course: 74-71 in 2014 and 78-70 in 2015 to miss the cut both times.

The first tournament this week’s venue staged was a Challenge Tour event called The Princess (named by its host, Henrik Stenson, after his daughter Lisa) and it was Portuguese ace Santos who stormed through the field to take victory. After opening with a 73, he shot 68-65-66 to win with 16-under, the playoff number when The Lakes Course held this tournament last year. Santos didn’t play in that so this will be his first return to the par 72. He’s missed his last three European Tour cuts but did close with a 66 to finish T44 in a Challenge Tour event in Austria two weeks ago.

The 2012 winner at Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra split 12 (of 14) fairways and missed just two greens in the right number but needed 34 swishes of the flatstick on his opening lap. He managed just one birdie, at 17, and that was wiped out by a sole bogey at his penultimate hole, the eighth. Bad weather ruled out any play on Thursday and reduced the event to 54 holes so it’s been a trying time for the Portuguese so far over the first two days. At time of posting he was just four off the lead but the afternoon starters appear to be enjoying calmer weather conditions so Santos can expect to fall from his current position of T37.

It’s a part of the world the Portuguese star clearly enjoys and he’s a particular fan of this week’s venue, Royal Johannesburg & Kensington. Santos finished third in this event two years ago after a superb final-round 64 -- his best result on the European Tour in 2013. He was also T31 last year. Also on the 32-year-old’s CV is an opening 62 which gave him the first-round lead at the 2014 Africa Open. His top 20 there forms part of his 8-for-8 streak on these shores which he continued when finishing T46 in last month’s South African Open.