The Escorpión Golf Club, in the Valencian town of Bétera, is hosting the big week of Spanish senior men's golf, which kicks off this Wednesday with the Spanish Doubles Championship. Immediately following on Friday, the Individual tournament will be held, where the big question is whether Jacobo Cestino will secure his fourth consecutive title and thus further solidify his dominance in the category.

The man from Malaga (exact handicap -3.4) is not playing in the Doubles event, saving himself for the Singles where he will face well over a hundred opponents. From May 10th to 12th, Cestino is the main rival to beat, given his status as defending champion and the dominance he has shown in the senior ranks in recent years.

Once again, the Andalusian will not have an easy time reaching the podium on Sunday, just as happened a few weeks ago in the Madrid Senior Championship, a tournament in which he needed a brilliant final stretch - five birdies in the last seven holes - to dethrone Alejandro Lafarga (-0.9), one of his main rivals also in Escorpión.

Classics of the category such as Carlos Cendra (-1.3), Álvaro Llanza (-1), Ramón Luengo (-0.9) -the best of ours in the Spanish Individual International played at the end of February-, Luis López (-0.6), Iván San Félix (-0.6), Alfonso Montojo (-0.6), Ángel Sartorius (-0.2), winner in 2018, or Alfonso Erhardt (-0.2) also aspire to a prestigious title.

The tournament is played over three rounds of stroke play, with a cut at the end of the second round at 60th place and ties. After this event, only one tournament remaining that counts towards the 2024 National Ranking for the category: the Castilla-La Mancha Senior Championship (June 1st and 2nd, Castilla-La Mancha Golf Club, Albacete).

The Doubles tournament kicks off the week

As usual, the Doubles competition kicks things off, featuring sixty teams, the maximum allowed by the rules. Once again, the waiting list is extensive. Notably absent from this tournament is last year's winning pair, Ángel Sartorius and Jorge García. Both are participating, yes, but with different partners.

Yes, Jorge Rubio and Juan Leach (accumulated handicap -0.6), winners in 2022 and 2023, are in the game, as are Ramón Luengo and Alejandro Lafarga (-1.8), the Paradinas brothers, Gonzalo and Álvaro (1); Álvaro Llanza and Estanislao Urquijo (-0.2), winners in the 2018 edition.

As is traditional, the competition is played in two rounds, the first under the Best Ball format and the second, Greensome.

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