The Challenge de España made its first appearance on the Challenge Tour International Schedule in 1999 when Spaniard Carl Suneson won the maiden event, but the arguably biggest moment in the tournament’s history arrived in 2016, when Nicolo Ravano became the second player in Challenge Tour history to card a round of 59 at Tecina Golf.
Many past winners of the event have gone on to achieve great things in golf, and none more so than the 2013 winner; a certain Brooks Koepka.
The American, playing in his second season on the Challenge Tour, triumphed in La Gomera – his second of three wins in the space of a month – to earn immediate promotion to the top tier where he kicked on to superstardom, winning four Major Championships by the age of 30.
Recent winners of the event include French duo Victor Perez and Antoine Rozner, who have both gone on to win on the DP World Tour, as well as Czech Ondrej Lieser, who incredibly won at Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri before winning the Challenge Tour Grand Final two weeks later to top the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
Home favourite Santiago Tarrio won last year’s event in Cádiz before going on to graduate to the DP World Tour at the end of the year.
