Golf: Jose Maria Olazabal makes his first appearance of the season in Europe this week as he goes in search of a first Spanish Open title at Fuerteventura Golf Club.
Three of Olazabal's 22 European Tour titles have come in the Canary Islands, with victory in the 1989 Tenerife Open, the 1992 Turespaqa Open de Tenerife and the 1997 Turespaqa Masters Open de Canarias.
But surprisingly, the double Masters champion has yet to savour success in his national Open and is desperate to add his name to the short, but illustrious, list of home winners.
Since the start of the tour in 1972 there have only been three home winners of the title, the most recent being Sergio Garcia in Gran Canaria in 2002, who followed in the footsteps of Seve Ballesteros (1981, 1985, 1995) and Antonio Garrido (1972).
Olazabal has shown flashes of his best form this year with a first round of 65 at the BellSouth Classic followed by a traditional strong early showing at the US Masters.
But the 38-year-old has failed to win a European Tour title since the Hong Kong Open in November 2001 and has not featured in the Ryder Cup since his sixth appearance ended in controversy at Brookline in 1999.
In addition to Olazabal, the home challenge at Fuerteventura will also feature Carlos Rodiles, who will be looking to go one better than his runner-up finish on his last appearance on home soil.
That was in the Volvo Masters at the end of last season when he lost out to Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson at the fourth extra hole of a sudden-death play-off at Valderrama.
The 28-year-old from Malaga is still looking for his first tour victory, but before Valderrama he had already finished eighth in the Lancome Trophy and fifth in the German Masters, two of the first three events in the Ryder Cup qualifying race.
He therefore looked in a strong position to qualify for Bernhard Langer's side, which will defend the trophy at Oakland Hills in September, but this will be his first event since retiring from the Dubai Desert Classic in March suffering from a rib injury.
England's Kenneth Ferrie will be defending the title following his play-off victory in Tenerife over Sweden's Peter Hedblom and Ireland's Peter Lawrie, who went on to become the first Irishman to be named Rookie of the Year.
Lawrie returns for another shot at the big prize - 275,000 for this week's winner - and is joined in the field by fellow Irishmen Graeme McDowell, Damien McGrane and Gary Murphy.
Other past champions in the field include the Swedish trio of Joakim Haeggman (1993), Robert Karlsson (2001) and Jarmo Sandelin (1999). Haeggman won the Qatar Masters last month.
Meanwhile, at the Jolie Ville course in Egypt, Irish tour professionals Stephen Browne, Michael Hoey, Justin Kehoe and Colm Moriarty are among the competitors in the El Sheikh Challenge starting today.
