Gouveia Secures Second Challenge Tour Victory in The Last Three Weeks

ORLANDO – Former UCF Men's Golf standout Ricardo Gouveia won the Made in Esbjerg Challenge on Saturday to claim his fifth European Challenge Tour title courtesy of a four under par 67 at Esbjerg Golfklub in Esbjerg, Denmark.

The Challenge Tour victory marked Gouveia's second in the last three weeks as the former Knight also secured a first place overall finish in the Italian Challenge in late July.

His last win prior to that came at the 2015 Challenge Tour Grand Final in Oman, a win which secured him the prestigious title of Challenge Tour Number One for that season.

The 30-year-old Goueveia finished with a 69-71-69-67=276(-8) score to secure his most recent win.

"It was amazing," said Gouveia in an interview following his win. "It's another great tournament for me, coming off a great win in Italy after six years without winning. This one was another special week, and I am very happy.

"The win in Italy gave me a lot of confidence and I played really well throughout the whole week, especially on the weekend - the last day was just flawless, so it gave me a lot of confidence."

The victory moved Gouveia to second position in the Road to Mallorca Rankings, behind Spain's Santiago Tarrio, and virtually secures his playing rights on the European Tour next season.

While at UCF from 2011-14, Gouveia was third-team All-America and All-Region as a senior, while earning Honorable Mention All-America honors as a sophomore. Gouveia is sprinkled throughout the men's golf record book as one of the top golfers in program history. Heholds the second best 54-hole score with a 203, holds the second lowest career scoring average (71.84), and has the second best single-season scoring average with a 71.06. In his three seasons as a Knight, Gouveia won an event each year.