It certainly was for Steven Brown, who somehow saved his card by winning here in 2019, and it was at least close to that for the more decorated Lucas Bjerregaard, whose second place last year was just enough. "It’s never meant as much to me," said the player whose first win came at the same venue. "I haven’t felt comfortable all week but I did what I came here to do, even though I didn’t feel like I’d played very well. That kind of sunk in with that putt on the last."
This year's battle for cards is made even more intriguing by the fact that Ricardo Gouveia, the flag-bearer for Portuguese golf, finds himself three places and 30 or so points short of what's required. Converted to something more digestible, back-to-back top-20s leave him needing just one more of them to likely keep hold of his status, and he's got to be hopeful given that he's made all seven cuts in his home event.
That's all combined to elevate Gouveia up the betting and he'll hope the condition of the course doesn't prove his undoing. Last Friday, players received an alert that a 'final decision' had been made regarding the state of the greens from holes 10-17, which confirmed that the tournament will go ahead. That it was in any doubt is a concern and the same message admitted that 'there are still some areas in recovery', a fact punters and players alike need to consider.
Green was selected at 70/1 when he lipped out a short putt for a play-off in the Czech Masters, at almost twice that price when he got off to a bright start in Italy, and at 80s last week when somehow missing the places. It was the first time in months he'd putted poorly, yet still this enormously talented sort finished 11th.
Even putting as he did, Green would've placed had he not made two silly mistakes at the par-fives on the back-nine and while yes, this is to some extent a reflection of the player, I do maintain that he's playing the best golf of a career which promised to be something special and may yet be.
At eighth in strokes-gained approach in Mallorca he was back firing at flags as he had in Prague and now he comes to a course where he was 17th on his second visit a year ago. Tellingly, that was Green's standout performance of the year, an opening 66 the only time he was inside the top 20 after round one as he at last got a taste of being in the mix.
Last week, Sullivan made my staking plan at 35/1, with Hojgaard a shade bigger. This week, at a course where Sullivan won by nine shots in 2015 and would've defended his title but for a dodgy putter, he's just about stayed the same whereas Hojgaard has crashed in price.
Even allowing for the Dane's enormous potential and a ceiling far higher than Sullivan's, and the fact he played the better of the two in Spain, something about their respective prices seems off to me. And it's not just that: I remain really encouraged by Sullivan's game and it goes without saying there's no need for speculation as to how well the course will suit him.
Of course, 2015 is a long time ago but Sullivan was eighth here in 2019 when leading the field in strokes-gained tee-to-green, he skipped the event in 2020 having qualified for the September US Open, and last year he arrived on the back of a withdrawal but played some solid stuff before a poor final round.
Eighth for the year, Long has been prolific throughout a fine rookie campaign which has seen him already lock up starts in the Nedbank and the DP World Tour Championship. He's not yet being talked about in Ryder Cup terms and perhaps rightly so, but he's undoubtedly one with the potential to muscle in on the argument.
For now I like the fact he's a supreme driver of the ball who got that club purring again in Mallorca, which might itself be a decent enough form guide. His approach play, so often his weakest area, has been better lately and saw him gain strokes over there, and ninth place was a welcome return to form.
This formerly high-class amateur has made an encouraging start to life as a professional, winning quickly on the Challenge Tour and never looking like losing his DP World Tour card, so the next step in the journey is to win and likely in an event like this one.
Jordan played here a fortnight after turning pro back in 2018 and missed the cut, but he's been 14th and fifth in two subsequent starts to confirm his suitability to the course. No wonder he likes it, as he's long off the tee and can get on the front foot, his putting more than good enough to achieve the low numbers which are required.
One quirk of this event has been how many winners from the 2011 European Amateur Team Championship, held here at Dom Pedro, that it has thrown up. From a field of 120, most of whom have since given up on dreams of a professional career, no fewer than five of them have won one of the subsequent 11 renewals of this event. Had Sullivan defended his title they'd have combined for more than half of them.
And while Schneider finished down the field, way behind the likes of Pieters and Bjerregaard, closer inspection reveals that his opening 64 was in fact the round of the week. It's a small but potentially significant pointer towards a player with so much more to like beyond that.
Pulkkanen has since made all four cuts in the Portugal Masters, improving his finishing position each time, and carding 14 under-par rounds in 16. For a player occasionally prone to a wild drive and a duffed chip, clearly he has a level of comfort here.
That's also true of the correlating course in Prague, where he almost won for us last year, and he returned there to play well a couple of months ago. Since then he's finished 10th when selected at a huge price for the Dunhill Links, another event which shares some ties with this and where he'd played well before, so this horses-for-courses player has dropped plenty of hints.
Valderrama last time won't have suited – he's yet to threaten there in five starts and surely never will – and five top-30 finishes in six starts prior to that demonstrate a player performing at or close to his best.
Long off the tee, his standout performances this year have been on four of the most power-heavy courses played and this is certainly in that ballpark, plus I like the fact he's 74th on the Race to Dubai. This time last year he expressed delight at having achieved his main goal for the year, qualifying for the DP World Tour Championship, and the way he played early on there will only have whetted the appetite.
Pulkkanen, 19th in birdie average so far in 2022, is one of the better maidens on the circuit for my money and has exactly the sort of aggressive game I'm looking for. While others look over their shoulders, he can overpower the course and contend here for the first since since his amateur days, with bet365's 70/1 and the general 66/1 representing a lovely each-way bet.
Posted at 1920 BST on 24/10/22
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