Portugal’s No1 golfer and only PGA European Tour representative Ricardo Santos is in increasing danger of seeing what began as a successful second season decline into oblivium.
It appears that a number of questionable decisions by the 30-year-old ‘Rookie of the Year’ 2012 from Faro are hampering his progress in the top echelons of the game. His reported change in swing has resulted in erratic results as illustrated by the scores achieved during last weekend’s KLM Open, an event he initially intended to miss in favour of a rest ahead of his ‘home’ tournament, the Portugal Open.
In Holland, Santos got past the cut with rounds of a par 70 and a 69 only to hit seven bogeys during a disastrous 77. He finished with a 71 for a less than hoped for seven-way share of a 73rd place and appears a long way off the majestic form which saw him take last year’s Madeira Open.
Meanwhile, Portugal’s latest Pro, Pedro Figueiredo, is making great strides in only his third month on the second tier Challenger Tour. At last weekend’s Kharkov Superior Cup in the Ukraine, featuring the likes of Andriy Shevchenko and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 22-year-old passed his second successive cut before carding a best-to-date round of 67 and closing with a 70 to produce his first top 15 finish of his budding career.
