Finding the top-ranked OWGR golfers from obscure golf nations

Andorra

I’ve saved perhaps the most interesting golfer for last. That would be Andorra’s own Kevin Esteve.

Andorra is a tiny nation of just under 80,000 situated between Spain and France. It’s in the Pyrenees Mountains and is a popular skiing destination.

Esteve skiied in the winter and played tennis in the summer growing up, making the Andorran national team in both. At age 14, he had to pick one sport and chose skiing.

It appeared he made the right choice. Esteve qualified for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. At the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, he suffered a severe ACL injury. His skiing days were over.

Esteve did play some golf growing up, and decided this would be his sport of focus while also finishing out his studies in France.

According to his website, KevinEsteve.com, his “huge elite athletic experience” (excellent phrasing, I may add) helped him a 1.8 handicap in late 2014 at the age of 25.

A year later, he turned pro and found his way onto the Mena Tour, an OWGR-counting tour, by 2016.

Considering his background, his first year went pretty well. Esteve made 9 of 16 cuts, including his first two. He didn’t finish higher than a tie for 17th, however.

Momentum stalled from 2017-2019 where he cashed a paycheck just three times out of 27 between the Mena, China Tour, and Pro Golf Tours.

The journey isn’t over. In 2020, he’s played five Mena events with four cuts made. Esteve just can’t find a way to go low enough as he did no better than T-26.

As you can imagine, Mena Tour events don’t dole out a lot of OWGR points. Especially when you’re finishing as low as he is. Esteve is among numerous players in “last place” in the OWGR rankings at No. 2,089. His peak was 1,774.

Whatever comes next really doesn’t matter as far as I’m concerned.

How many golfers had a club in their hand since the crib, but couldn’t make a dollar playing the game? This guy had two other sports higher on his priority list for half his life, and now he’s chasing his dream in golf and beating pros in the process.

It’s more impressive considering he didn’t have many places inside his own country’s borders to play.

Per AndorraResorts.com, Andorra has two golf courses. Fun fact: Grandvalira Golf Soldeu is Europe’s highest elevated course at 2,250 meters (approximately 7,381 feet). That’ll help your driving statistics.

I recommend exploring photos of the course. The views are absolutely breathtaking. And for a klutz like me, playing golf alongside those mountains seems like a safer bet than skiing down them.