Spain's Pablo Martin will be trying this week to join an elite group of golfers who have won a European Tour event three times in a row. Martin, who at the Portuguese Open in 2007 became the circuit's first recreational winner, is going for a hat-trick of titles in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopards Creek in South Africa.
If successful he would join Ian Woosnam, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els. Woods, the only player to do it at more than one event, was the last to attain the feat in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational four years ago.
Hopefully I can do it again,Martin said on the Tour website.I don't know what it is about the place. If I knew what it was I would do it every week.He has not made a halfway cut since July and said:I need to find something because I haven't a lot of self-assurance at the instant.
I don't know what to anticipate being honest, but you just never know with this game.Golf is a crazy sport that drives you mad most of the time and it might the case that this week I find my game again in this very individual place.
Three times would be special and if I do it I will be taking that trophy home - even if they won't let me!Martin plays the first two rounds with former Ryder Cup player Oliver Wilson, whose agenda is very dissimilar.
Wilson has flown from Asia to South Africa to try to keep his Tour career afloat three years after representing Europe against the Americans in Louisville. There is not as much money on offer as at the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia, but the field is nowhere near as strong.
Wilson, nine times a runner-up without ever charming, has fall down to 132nd on this season's money list - and only the top 115 keep their cards after the Hong Kong Open in a fortnight's time.