Malaysia’s Gavin Green resumes his European Tour campaign on unfamiliar ground in this week’s Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open after a two-week break due to a wrist injury. The US$1 million event is the first of two consecutive tour stops in Cyprus, with the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Showdown taking place next week.
While the left wrist injury has abated, Gavin will have to play the PGA National Cyprus course at Aphrodite Hills Resort without a practice round due to some entry permit issues that delayed his travel.
“I was supposed to fly there on Sunday but could not board the flight due to a problem with my Cyprus entry permit. We managed to get it sorted out but now I can only get there on Wednesday, so there won’t be time for a practice round,” said Gavin, who is currently in 42nd place on the European Tour’s Race To Dubai (RTD) rankings.
“My caddie Brendan (McCartain) has been in Cyprus since Sunday and is mapping the course out for me. I’ll have to rely solely on his advice during the first round, so it will be tough, but we’ll do our best,” he added.
This is the European Tour’s first-ever visit to the Republic of Cyprus, an islandic nation in the Mediterranean Sea to the south of Turkey and west of Lebanon.
Despite the break from competition, Gavin is happy with where his swing is having spent the last week in Dubai working with coach Chris O’Connell.
“It was good having Chris over in Dubai and we worked on fine-tuning a few things with my swing. I’m excited to see how the adjustments work out this week,” shared Gavin.
The top 60 players on the RTD get into the European Tour’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship on December 10-13 in Dubai. The US$8 million event will be played on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course of Jumeirah Golf Estates.
