The “Sovex Classic,” heralded a new era for The Gecko Pro Tour as Sovex Systems became our very first event sponsor. The Marbella Golf Country Club formed the back drop to this momentous opening event of the 2013/4 Gecko Pro Tour.
Since the Tour Championship Final at Valderrama on March 19th, the Gecko Team has been working extremely hard to further upgrade the tournament experience for our players. The Gecko Pro Tour is proud to report that we have entered into a number of strategic alliances which will have an important impact on our ability to attract larger fields with the offer of higher prize funds as well as a number of additional and significant player incentives.
The field assembled at the Marbella Golf Country Club was of exceptional quality, with a string of professionals with extensive European and Challenge Tour experience that included Pablo Martin Benavides, a three-times winner on the European Tour.
The Marbella Golf Country Club is renowned for its slick, sharply contoured and fast putting surfaces, which challenges even the most experienced golfer. Therefore, it was no surprise that the scoring on Day 1 was dominated by Carlos Rodiles and Eirik Tage Johansen who carded rounds of 67 (-5) with the clubhouse leader Gabriel Canizares coming home with an impressive 66 (-6), only 2 shots above the course record of 64 recorded by last year’s winner Rod Bastard. There were also notable performances by others, in particular the young local amateur Antonio Jimenez Pimentel, who returned a fine 68 (-4). Testament to the quality of the field was the fact that 15 players ended Day 1 below par on this tough course.
