The 30-year-old Portuguese has won twice on the 2021 Road to Mallorca – at the Italian Challenge and the Made in Esbjerg Challenge – Presented by FREJA & TotalEnergies – and a victory at Royal Óbidos Spa and Golf Resort this week would seal his European Tour card for the remainder of this year and 2022.

Gouveia, who was crowned Challenge Tour Number One in 2015, would love nothing more than an emotional win on home soil and arrives at Royal Óbidos having secured two top five finishes in his last four starts.

“It’s great to be here, especially as I’ve been playing well over the last few months,” he said. “It’s always great to play on home turf.

“My main goal is to get the third win because that obviously gets me a better category for next year but if that doesn’t work out then it would be great to get to Number One and win the Rankings again.

“It’s going to be really hard because Santiago (Tarrio) has a big lead and he’s playing really well this year. If I keep playing like this, stay patient and stick to my processes then I think I have a great chance of getting that third win.

“It’s been a dream of mine since I started playing golf to win in Portugal and it would be a dream come true.”

Gouveia finished in a tie for 35th place at last year’s edition of the Open de Portugal and he believes the course to be in better condition this time around, with playing in front of home crowds an exciting prospect.

“It’s lovely here, if the weather is like this all week then it’s going to be fantastic,” he said. “The weather can be very unpredictable here but I think the course is much nicer this year. The rough is up a little bit more and the greens are much faster and in better condition, so I think it’s going to be a nice week.

“I normally try to feed off the crowds. Obviously there’s a bit more pressure because you want to perform in front of them but I think I’m mentally stronger and more experienced than I was last year and in the last few years. I’m looking forward to it and I hope there’s a lot of people come out here during the week.”

The 2021 Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos gets under way at 8:00am local time on Thursday September 23, with Gouveia teeing it up at 12:55pm alongside Denmark’s Marcus Helligkilde and Englishman Alfie Plant, who won his first Challenge Tour title at the Hopps Open de Provence last week. European Tour