NACHO GARRIDO JOINS EUROPEAN TOUR'S 500 CLUB

FROM EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS 
After completing his opening round of one under par 71 at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Ignacio Garrido became a member of an exclusive group of professionals to have played 500 European Tour events.

The Spaniard, whose career highlights include a victorious Ryder Cup appearance in his homeland in 1997 and a victory in the Tour’s flagship event at the 2003 PGA Championship, became just the 23^rd player in history to reach the milestone of 500 (or more) appearances on The European Tour.

To mark the occasion, Garrido (picture by courtesy of Getty Images(c), was presented with a silver ice bucket, produced by Thomas Lyte, by the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters Tournament Director, David Probyn.

“I have to be honest and confess that I didn't know about my 500^th appearance until I got here, but it’s nice to know that I've been around so long – let's hope it's not the last 500 and there are many more,” smiled Garrido.

“I guess it's not easy to reach that many tournaments and it's nice to get there.  But the main thing is not only to play the tournaments, but to stay competitive and keep having a chance to win some of them at some point.

“I still have ambition and believe that there is something out there for me that I still haven't achieved and that's what we still work hard for.”

Born into a prodigious golfing family – his father, Antonio, and uncle, German, were both European Tour winners – Ignacio, or ‘Nacho’ to his friends, made his first appearance on Tour as an amateur at the 1990 Spanish Open. He won the prestigious English Amateur Strokeplay title in 1992 before joining the paid ranks and making his first Tour start as a professional in the 1993 Turespaña Iberia-Open de Canarias.

He graduated from the Challenge Tour in 1993 and won his first title at the 1997 German Open to join his father and uncle as a European Tour winner.

That same year, Garrido made his one and only Ryder Cup appearance, an experience that would prove to be the highlight of his career as he played his part in helping Seve Ballesteros’s European Team to victory over the USA in Spain – the first Ryder Cup staged in Continental Europe, at the magnificent Club de Golf Valderrama.

Garrido claimed one and a half points from his four matches at Valderrama, including halving his first three games to become the first rookie in Ryder Cup history to halve three matches.

His greatest individual success came at the home of The European Tour, over Wentworth Club’s famous West Course as he won the 2003 PGA Championship.