Portuguese golfer finished a performance in Vilamoura motivated to compete next week in the AVIV Dubai Champioship. It will be the last chance to keep the category

Ricardo Santos, author of a good performance at the close of the 15th edition of the Portugal Masters, this Sunday, at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, gained confidence to fight for maintenance on the European Tour, next week, in Dubai.

On a day when the other two Portuguese in the competition, Vítor Lopes and Tomás Gouveia, were not so happy, the Algarve professional, a member of the European Circuit, staged a last productive lap and arrived with four under par to hole 18, where he placed the ball in water, no approach to the green. He double bogeyed and ended up with 279 shots (70 + 69 + 71 + 69), five under, and in 32nd place, tied.

“It was a missed shot, unfortunately to the wrong side. I wasn’t playing for the flag, maybe the alignment was wrong and my subconscious provoked a bad swing. Unfortunately it went to the more penalizing side”, he explained at the end.

In addition to defending that it won’t be “a bad shot or staining the week”, the 39-year-old native of Faro made a positive assessment of his participation in the penultimate tournament of the season, which distributed 1.5 million euros in cash prizes and crowned Belgian Thomas Pieters champion.

“It’s a positive balance. Today I managed to skate much better, the day I skated better, although it wasn’t the day I ran better from tee to green. But the week was very positive. which is what matters, “he underlined, acknowledging, however, having been” a little short of what he would like, but there were many good things and others that need to be improved for next week “.

Ricardo Santos, who with 32nd place rises to 160th in the Race to Dubai, will compete next week in the AVIV Dubai Championship, the last opportunity to try to maintain the same category on the European Tour next season, and he leaves of the Algarve confident.

“It’s believing until the end. It’s the last card and we’ll bet everything on it”, stressed the Algarve, after signing today six “birdies” (one below) on holes 4, 5, 8, 10, 12 and 14 and two ” bogeys “(one above) in 3 and 11, beyond the” double-bogey” to close.