Luciana Reis among the best in Portugal – Golf
By winning, less than a week ago, the 5th Tournament of the FPG Circuit, Luciana Reis entered a batch of champions extremely reserved for the best Portuguese golf players today.
The 17-year-old player from Cascais not only won the female amateur classification of that event, held at Quinta do Peru Golf & Country Club, but was also the best player in the event, including the two professionals who signed up.
Luciana Reis totaled 149 strokes, 5 above Par for the field located in the municipality of Sesimbra, after rounds 74 and 75. In the general classification, including male, professional and amateur athletes, she occupies a good 16th place (tied). If there had been a female classification, it would have left professional Sara Gouveia (75 + 77) at 3 strokes. In the female amateur classification she surpassed Ana da Costa Rodrigues (77 + 79) by 7 ‘shots’.
It was an unequivocal victory and came after the 2nd place that he had achieved shortly before in the Under-18 National Championship. The player who represents the Club de Golf de Miramar, in Vila Nova de Gaia, undoubtedly reached a good moment of form in the final of the season.
It is worth looking at the best female results of the last two years, in the main Portuguese ‘stroke play’ tournaments, in which amateurs and professionals managed to compete on an equal footing. And it is important to highlight the best results and not titles, because in some events trophies are only awarded to the best professional or the best amateur, regardless of whether they were the best player on the field. However, for this analysis exercise, it is important to see who the best players are, regardless of whether they are amateurs or professionals.
In 2021 this status of best player was conquered by these athletes: Leonor Bessa (-2) in the 1st Tournament of the FPG Circuit (O’Connor Jr. Course), Susana Ribeiro (-2) in the 2nd Tournament Circuit FPG ( Montado), Sara Gouveia (+2) in the 3rd Tournament of the FPG Circuit (Troia), Sara Gouveia (Pair) in the 4th Tournament of the FPG Circuit (Ribagolfe Oaks), Leonor Bessa (+1) in the 5th Tournament do Circuito FPG (San Lorenzo), Sofia Sá (+11) at the Hyundai Absolute National Championship (Belas), Susana Ribeiro (+9) at the Open Xiragolfe (Santo Estêvão), Sara Gouveia (+7) at the PGA Portugal Player Championship (O ‘Connor Jr. Course).
In 2022 the best female results in national ‘stroke play’ competitions open to amateurs and professionals were the following: Sofia Sá (-6) in the 1st Tournament of the FPG Circuit (Mounted), Ana da Costa Rodrigues (+10) in 2nd FPG Circuit Tournament (Porto), Sara Gouveia (+3) n.º 3rd FPG Circuit Tournament (Boavista), Ana da Costa Rodrigues (Par) 4th FPG Circuit Tournament (Ribagolfe Oaks), Luciana Reis (+5) at the 5th Tournament of the FPG Circuit (Quinta do Peru), Francisca Rocha (+15) at the Amarante Golf Open, Susana Ribeiro (+12) at the Open Xiragolfe (Ribagolfe Lakes), Inês Belchior (+5) in the Hyundai Absolute National Championship (Aroeira Pines Classic).
It should be noted that Sara Gouveia obtained the best female result four times in two years; Susana Ribeiro did it three times; Leonor Bessa, Sofia Sá and Ana da Costa Rodrigues on two occasions; and, with a mention, Inês Belchior, Francisca Rocha and Luciana Reis.
The last two (Rocha and Reis) are the only ones who have never been called up to the national team for the European or World Cup for women’s teams. All the others, even those who are now professionals, had the honor of representing Portugal in the two most important competitions for amateur records in the female sector.
It is true that Luciana Reis has been called up for the under-18 national team in the last two years, including for the Europeans in that age group. They have also played in the Portuguese Amateur International Championship for two years in a row.
The victory at Quinta do Peru did not, therefore, come out of nowhere, but this rise in level at the end of the season, to be confirmed next season, could one day take her to the main team, although the competition is strong .
In fact, Sofia Sá and Leonor Medeiros (who compete on the university circuit in the United States), Ana da Costa Rodrigues (U18 national champion) and Inês Belchior (Absolute and U18 national champion) have shown themselves to be superior. They have been consistent players for many years and seem to be still growing, with great potential.
That is why this first victory in the prestigious FPG Circuit is of such importance, in a list of entries that, in addition to the aforementioned Sara Gouveia and Ana da Costa Rodrigues, also include Francisca Rocha (+14), Susana Ribeiro (+15) and Constança Mendonça (+19).
It was in 2022 that Luciana Reis appeared for the first time in the female amateur world ranking and closed the year with a first title on the FPG Circuit, causing her to end the season in 3rd place in the outo (gross) ranking of this ‘tour’, behind by Francisca Rocha and Inês Belchior.
As we have been referring to on other occasions, much more important than this gold ranking is the BPI National Ranking, indeed the true authority of the FPG for amateurs. And then Luciana Reis is the n.º5 national amateur. No. 1 is Sofia Sá, followed by Ana da Costa Rodrigues, Francisca Rocha, Inês Belchior and Luciana Reis.
Sofia Sá, playing for Texas Christian University (TCU), has already won a tournament in the United States in her first year as a ‘rookie’ and it is clear that she did not come to Portugal to receive the trophy of n.º1 national amateur. However, he left a message on his Facebook account: “For the fourth consecutive year I won the BPI National Ranking. I want to thank the Portuguese Golf Federation for the opportunities they gave me at the international level this year. Finally, I want to thank my club, Quinta do Lago, and to my coaches, for their constant support.”
It should be noted that the BPI National Ranking also includes other tournaments exclusively for amateurs, which are authentic classics on the national calendar. The best players in these competitions, in 2022, were the following: Francisca Rocha (+25) in the RS Yatman Cup in Miramar, Francisca Rocha (+7) in the Mendes d’Almeida Cup in Vidago, Patrícia Nunes Pedro (+20) in Lisbon Cup in Belas, and… Luciana Reis (+11) at the Estoril Open.
Therefore, Luciana Reis ended up winning two important tournaments in the season that is now ending (not counting events in youth levels), while Francisca Rocha took the best female classification in three.
Although she is included in the FPG’s high-performance programs and trains regularly at the FPG’s National Training Center in Jamor, including training sessions with national coach Nelson Ribeiro, Luciana Reis has been closely followed over the last three years by Carlos Magalhães.
Record asked the professional coach of the Club de Golf de Miramar to give a brief assessment of the player, so that we can better understand these latest positive results. Here are your considerations:
“In the last three years, Luciana has evolved a lot technically, but sometimes school, personal matters, put themselves ahead of golf and she was unable to focus 100% on the sport.
“Right now she is mentally available, stronger, manages her time much better and manages to reconcile everything better.
“As a player, she is very strong from the tee, she has a good putt, which allows her to make a lot of birdies and sometimes recover from some mistakes she has during the round.
“In the future, Luciana needs to have even more discipline in training to continue to evolve in the process in which she is inserted and technically she needs to evolve a little bit on the chip, in the game around the green.
“This victory for Luciana comes at a time when she is much more available for golf and much more focused on the training process and the results speak for themselves”.