The two-time European Tour winner is currently in 110th position, and he has victory in the last stop in a three-event Spanish swing in his sights, as he returns to the course that hosted one of his earliest wins – the Spanish National Under 14, back in 2000.
Belgian Thomas Pieters is also targeting a strong end to the season as he bids to play his way into the field for the season ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
The big hitting Belgian has only missed the season finale once, in his rookie campaign, and a good week here in the Balearic islands at the sixth Spanish event on the 2021 Race to Dubai could go a long way to helping him break into the top 50 and secure his place at the final Rolex Series event of 2021.
The European Tour is returning to Mallorca for the first time in a decade, and to a venue that has seen wins from stars including Spanish greats Seve Ballesteros and Miguel Angel Jiménez. For seven-time European Tour winner Alvaro Quiros, who is battling to keep his card at 149th position in the Race to Dubai Rankings, a win here this week could be just as special as his first Tour victory on Spanish soil at the 2010 Open de Espana.
Player Quotes
Jorge Campillo: I still remember that day (winning the Spanish National U14 at this course in 2000) like it was yesterday. I still remember a few shots, one that I hit on two.
It was a nice day, we were tied going into the last day – me and Pablo Martin and one other guy. It’s always a good memory to come back here after that win. I totally remember the day, it was a special day for me.
It’s been a tough season. A tough start and then I had some good weeks but I never finished on top of the leaderboard so it’s been quite tough.
I still have three tournaments to go and I think I’m playing better now. Hopefully I can win one of these three events coming up, if not I’ll just get ready for next year.
Thomas Pieters: That’s obviously the main goal for me right now (qualifying for DP World Tour Championship, Dubai). I added a couple of tournaments and I’m playing everything until then just to give myself the best chance and hopefully I can do it.
I played some yesterday and today and you just try to take everything in, look at the whole course, the greens – how it slopes, back to front, left to right. You try to do as much work around the greens as possible as well. You’ll still find new stuff once you go round Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
It’s interesting. There’s some driveable par fours. Small greens, you’ve got to be accurate with the irons, the greens are rolling fine so it’s going to be a tough one if the wind gets up. Four times in the 60s will do just fine.
Alvaro Quiros: Without a doubt, winning in Spain is more special than anywhere else, and more so if you do it in the circumstances that I did (at the 2010 Open de Espana), being my first Spanish win on Tour, with my mother present there, and to top it off it was Mother’s Day.
If that made me excited, I think a win this week, considering how tight I am with respect to keeping the card for next season, would be just as celebrated or more.
Having been on the circuit for so many years means that I have been able to experience the good times of having up to seven tournaments in Spain, and also the bad years when they all disappeared, so it is a luxury to be able to see how everything is recovering step by step, because for us it is fantastic. Being from the south, I run away from the cold, and these tournaments give me life, and I think I speak for the vast majority of Spaniards.
