The 2022 Acciona Open de España presented by Madrid promises to be spectacular, even given the high bar set by the last two editions of the event played on Club de Campo Villa de Madrid’s black course.
With his name in lights at the top of the entry list, Jon Rahm will be bidding to equal Seve Ballesteros as the only player with three titles from Spain’s national open. However, he will have to fend off some stiff competition if he is to repeat the victory he enjoyed here in 2019.
English superstar Tommy Fleetwood will be teeing it up at the event for the first time, and even though he is good friends with Jon, his Ryder Cup teammate, they will surely be keeping a close eye on one another throughout the 72-hole tournament as the Englishman bids to end the run of Spanish victories in recent years.
The local streak was kept alive last season by Canary Islander Rafa Cabrera, with a clinical performance in a playoff against the Catalonian Adri Arnaus. They will both be back among this year’s favourites, which include plenty of home players such as Madrid native Sebas Garcia, Nacho Elvira, Pablo Larrazabal and Jorge Campillo. They all have a history of playing well at home and will have had this week in Madrid circled in red for some time.
Playing in front of the home fans can elevate performances and provide extra motivation, but it can also take its toll if a player is unable to manage the added nerves that come with it. Luis Masaveu and Quim Vidal will be hoping they can handle theirs; the two amateurs received invites to the competition thanks to a dream 2022 season so far, which has included victory at the European Team Championship, where they represented Spain.
Plenty of quality international players will also be hoping to put their names on the trophy, and there is always the odd outsider with the potential to crash the party of the hot favourites. The Australian Min Woo Lee, South African player Brandon Stone and Englishman Chris Wood are just a few of the names that should not be written off. Club de Campo Villa de Madrid always has a surprise or two up its sleeve.
Rahm and Fleetwood are the only two players at the Acciona Open de España this week who are assured a place in the 2023 Ryder Cup team. However, they will be joined in Madrid by Danish European Tour legend Thomas Bjorn and the Italian Edoardo Molinari, two of Luke Donald’s vice captains, who will undoubtedly be providing their captain with a detailed account of the action in the Spanish capital from 6 to 9 October.
This is not an event to be missed, and the fans in Madrid will undoubtedly be back in droves, perhaps even exceeding the spectacular turnout in 2021, when no fewer than 42,371 tickets were sold, demonstrating how much passion there is for golf in Spain and how much desire there is to see one of the Spaniards triumph at home.
