(Provided by Tennis World USA)
It was the dream setting for a tournament that many already consider a ‘major’ on the PGAe Spain Golf Tour Circuit. The double champion of the Augusta Txema Olazábal Masters, now enrolled in the Legends Tour and in the Champions Tour, but whenever he can Lending a hand with his presence in tournaments in Spain, will be in the final round of the II Bizkaia PGAe Open that this Sunday It ends at Meaztegi Golf, a design by the ill-fated and intimate Basque Seve Ballesteros, “and a public course ”, emphasizes the man from San Sebastián.
Txema Olazábal, statements
He leads the Catalan Marc Sabriá with -13, with Adrián Otaegui, number 81 in the World Ranking, on the lookout, one shot away. And it is that nobody could paint such a perfect set for this second edition of the Bizkaia PGA Open in Meaztegi with figures of the stature of Otaegui fighting for the title and Olazábal playing in the final round.
“Well, I can’t aspire to the title, I’m envious of these youngsters how long they hit them, but I’ve fought every blow, overcome the heat and here we are,” explained the Hondabitarra. José María Olazábal Manterola (Fuenterrabía, Guipúzcoa, February 5, 1966) is a Spanish golfer.
As an amateur player, he was champion of the prestigious British The Amateur Championship in 1984. His professional record includes two “green jackets” by winning the Augusta Masters in the 1994 and 1999 editions, in addition to having participated seven times in the Ryder Cup , winning four of them with the European team in the 1987, 1989, 1997 and 2006 editions, forming together with Severiano Ballesteros, the most successful Ryder couple in the history of this tournament. 1 He was the European Captain in the edition of the 2012 Ryder Cup, where his team was victorious after a historic comeback, a victory that the golfer dedicated to his former teammate Ballesteros, a great inspiration for the European team.
José María Olazábal is, as of July 2019, the player in history who took the shortest time to achieve his first 8 victories on the PGA/European circuit with a total of 66 appearances ahead of Tiger Woods, the second-earliest player.
Due to the merits acquired in his record and the respect earned among his professional colleagues, he has been a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame since 2009. In 2013 he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports.