Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño

Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño
— Golfer —
Personal information
Full name Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño
Nickname Gonzo[1]
Born (1980-10-13) 13 October 1980
Madrid, Spain
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 85 kg (187 lb; 13.4 st)
Nationality  Spain
Residence Madrid, Spain
Spouse Alicia (m. 2006)
Children Gonzalo, Lola, Alicia
Career
Turned professional 2004
Current tour(s) PGA Tour
Former tour(s) Web.com Tour
European Tour
Professional wins 8
Number of wins by tour
European Tour 7
Asian Tour 2
Other 1
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament T20: 2013
U.S. Open T10: 2013
The Open Championship T47: 2009
PGA Championship T32: 2009
Achievements and awards
Sir Henry Cotton
Rookie of the Year		 2005

Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño (born 13 October 1980) is a Spanish professional golfer. He played on the European Tour, winning seven times, and currently plays on the PGA Tour.

Early life

Fernández-Castaño was born in Madrid. He started playing golf at the age of three[2] and had a successful amateur career,[3] winning the 2003 Spanish Amateur Open Championship and achieving the first place in the Spanish amateur ranking in the same year. He represented Spain and Europe in several amateur team competitions, and was in the winning European team at the 2003 and 2004 Palmer Cup.

He turned professional at the end of 2004 after completing Stage One of the European Tour Qualifying School, finishing eighth at the Finals at San Roque Golf Club where he secured his card for the 2005 season.

Professional career

In his 2005 rookie season on the Tour, he won the KLM Open and the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award. In 2006 he won the BMW Asian Open, which was co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Asian Tour.

In 2007 he won his third European Tour tournament, the Italian Open. He has finished within the top 60 of the Order of Merit in each of his nine seasons on tour to date. He had one win on tour in 2008 at the Quinn Insurance British Masters.

He finished runner-up at the 2009 Estoril Open de Portugal after losing in a playoff to Michael Hoey. He would finish runner-up next week to Scott Strange at the Volvo China Open. He finished second for the third straight week at the Ballantine's Championship, where he lost to Thongchai Jaidee in a 3-way playoff in extremely tough conditions in Korea. He ended the season ranked 17th on the Race to Dubai.

In May 2009 he reached the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time.

In November 2011, he won the Barclays Singapore Open in a playoff.[4] He had previously missed over six months of the season due to a back injury.

Fernández-Castaño won his sixth career European Tour title in September 2012 at the BMW Italian Open. This was also the second time that he had won at this event. Fernández-Castaño overcame a one shot final round deficit to prevail by two strokes over Garth Mulroy after a final round of 64.[5]

In early 2013, Fernández-Castaño played several events on the PGA Tour, finishing third in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on a sponsor's exemption and reaching the 27th place in the Official World Golf Ranking, his best to date. He earned enough money to be eligible for Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour, which he accepted. This allowed him unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the 2013 season.[6] He also finished 10th in the U.S. Open, and concluded the season with more points than the 125th PGA Tour player to earn a place as a full member for 2014. On the European Tour he won the BMW Masters and finished six times in the top-10, missing only one cut in 21 events;[7] he ended the season ranked 7th on the Race to Dubai, his best ever performance to date.

The following season Fernández-Castaño decided to focus on the PGA Tour, playing most of his events in the United States. His best result and only top-10 of the year was in July at the RBC Canadian Open, where he finished tied for the 4th place.

The 2015 season of the PGA Tour proved to be less successful. He missed 15 cuts in 28 events played, finishing only 165th in the Fedex Cup ranking; between September and October he entered the Web.com Tour Finals in an attempt to save his PGA Tour membership, but failed to make an impact and ultimately lost his tour card.

Without his PGA Tour status, Fernández-Castaño decided to stay in the United States in 2016 and play the Web.com Tour hoping to quickly regain access to the major tour. He played 22 events in the regular season with two top-10 finishes, finishing only 64th. Entering for the second year in a row into the Web.com Tour Finals, he managed this time to graduate to the PGA Tour.

Amateur wins (1)

Professional wins (8)

European Tour wins (7)

Legend
Race to Dubai finals series (1)
Other European Tour (6)
No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of
victory		Runner(s)-up
1 12 Jun 2005 KLM Open −11 (66-70-66-67=269) 2 strokes England Gary Emerson
2 23 Apr 2006 BMW Asian Open
(co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour)		 −7 (71-71-69-70=281) Playoff Sweden Henrik Stenson
3 6 May 2007 Telecom Italia Open −16 (67-68-65=200) Playoff Austria Markus Brier
4 28 Sep 2008 Quinn Insurance British Masters −12 (71-70-68-67=276) Playoff England Lee Westwood
5 14 Nov 2011 Barclays Singapore Open
(co-sanctioned with Asian Tour)		 −14 (66-61-72=199) Playoff Philippines Juvic Pagunsan
6 16 Sep 2012 BMW Italian Open (2) −24 (68-65-67-64=264) 2 strokes South Africa Garth Mulroy
7 27 Oct 2013 BMW Masters −11 (71-71-67-68=277) 1 stroke Italy Francesco Molinari, Thailand Thongchai Jaidee

European Tour playoff record (4–2)

No.YearTournamentOpponent(s)Result
1 2006 BMW Asian Open Sweden Henrik Stenson Won with birdie on first extra hole
2 2007 Telecom Italia Open Austria Markus Brier Won with birdie on second extra hole
3 2008 Quinn Insurance British Masters England Lee Westwood Won with par on third extra hole
4 2009 Estoril Open de Portugal Northern Ireland Michael Hoey Lost to par on third extra hole
5 2009 Ballantine's Championship Thailand Thongchai Jaidee, South Korea Kang Sung-hoon Jaidee won with birdie on first extra hole
6 2011 Barclays Singapore Open Philippines Juvic Pagunsan Won with birdie on second extra hole

Other wins (1)

Results in major championships

Tournament 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Masters Tournament DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP 61 T20 T26
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP CUT DNP DNP CUT T10 CUT
The Open Championship T48 DNP DNP T47 CUT DNP T54 T54 CUT
PGA Championship CUT DNP DNP T32 T33 DNP T62 CUT T58

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 3
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 1
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 4
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 4
Totals 0 0 0 0 1 2 19 12

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Friend In Need, Friend Indeed". Golf Digest. 15 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Gonzalo Fernandez Castano Biography". Gonzalo Fernandez Castano website. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "Gonzalo Fernandez Castano career summary". Gonzalo Fernandez Castano website. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  4. ↑ "Spain's Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño wins Singapore Open play-off". BBC Sport. 14 November 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  5. ↑ "Spain's Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño wins BMW Italian Open". European Tour. 16 September 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  6. ↑ "Olesen now temporary member". PGA Tour. 19 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  7. ↑ "Gonzalo Fernandez Castano 2013 results". European Tour. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
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