16th Portugal Masters: Hugo Camelo is the 27th English to debut in Vilamoura – Golf
Hugo Camelo, just 19 years old, debuts tomorrow (Thursday) in DP World Tour tournaments and looks for the footsteps of some of the best Portuguese players ever, such as Ricardo Melo Gouveia and Pedro Figueiredo, who selected the cut at the Portugal Masters as amateurs, before becoming professionals.
In the 15 previous editions of the Portugal Master, 26 participants participated in the competition. Hugo Camelo will be the 27th 16th year, an illustration of national golf values.
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Of these 27, only Filipe Lima and António Sobrinho did not make the initiation course in a club and later rise to the amateur national teams of the Portuguese Golf Federation (FPG), before the eventual passage to professional.
Ricardo Santos is the record holder for participation in the Portugal Masters, going to play for the 13th time, but he always did it as a professional.
Ricado Melo Gouveia, who this year competes for the 11th, was successively cut as an amateur in 2012, before turning professional again on seven more occasions. His 5th place in 2017 (tied with Filipe Lima) is the best Portuguese classification ever at the Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course.
Figueiredo will compete in the Vilamoura event – which this year distributed 2 million euros in draws still final – for the 12th time and he also passed the cut as an amateur in 2011 and 2012, when he studied and competitiveness in California Los Angeles, in the United States). In 2014, already as a professional, “Figgy” was the best Portuguese, in the 30th place.
In addition to Ricardo Melo Gouveia and Pedro Figueiredo, there was only one other Portuguese amateur to pass the cut at the Portugal Masters, Tomás Santos Silva, in 2015, repeating the feat as a professional in 2019.
This is Hugo Camelo’s challenge, living a very positive time. He is number 1 in the BPI National Ranking (for amateurs) and has received an invitation from the FPG to debut, starting tomorrow, in tournaments in the European first professional division.
Last month, the amaranthine that represents the Miramar Golf Club (in Vila Nova de Gaia), shone at the Portuguese Open. It was his debut in the Challenge Tour, the European second division, and he became the first Portuguese to pass the cut since the race moved to Royal Óbidos.
Hugo Camelo even had the luxury of being the best Portuguese in the first round, with 3 strokes under par, appearing in the top-5 at 18 holes.
“From 0 to 10, I give a 10, to pass a cut in the important Challenge Tour, as I did in the International Amateur Championship of Portugal”, which also said to have made “a globally good tournament, where I learned a lot as a player”.
Nelson Ribeiro, the FPG’s national coach, has no doubts about the correctness of the invitation given to his player: “Hugo played in all competitions at national level, the European Championships (Individuals and Teams), the World Championship, the Challenge Tour and has always given a very positive response to those who had their first participation in these countries”.
When he played the Portuguese Open a month ago, Hugo Camelo was still 100% dedicated to golf. However, he has already enrolled in the Sports Degree at the University of Porto and this fact could make him more relaxed for his first Portugal Masters.
Hugo Camelo starts tomorrow at 9:30 am from hole 10, alongside Englishman Richard McEvoy and Korean Tae Hee Lee. McEvoy won exactly 20 years ago a EuroPro Tour tournament at Oitavos Dunes, in Cascais. After that he added three more Challenge Tour titles and one DP World Tour. Lee has been a PGA Tour China player with four international titles.
The first Portuguese to leave will be Ricardo Melo Gouveia, at 8:00 am, from hole three 10, with Italian Renato Paratore (two DP World Tour trophies) and Spaniard Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Alps Tour).
Ricardo Santos follows at 9:10 am, also from hole 10, with Italian Lorenzo Gagli (a Challenge Tour title) and Englishman Oliver Fisher (59 strokes in the second round of the 2018 Portugal Masters, the best round of the tournament ever, having a DP World Tour title).
Tomás Melo Gouveia starts his fourth participation in the competition at 9:20 am, from hole 1; Tomás Bessa starts his third Masters Portugal at 9:20 am on hole 10; Vítor Lopes plays the Turismo de Portugal event for the sixth time from 1:40 pm on hole 1; Pedro Figueiredo is scheduled for 15:50, also from hole 1; and Pedro Lencart, the current two-time national absolute champion, will compete in the Algarve competition for the turn from 1:50 pm, on hole 10, forming part of the last group.
The tournament was reduced to 120 players this year as it takes place at a time when natural light will disappear sooner.