Gouveia managed the feat by finishing third in the Nedbank Golf Challenge staged inside the Pilanesberg Game Reserve at Sun City.
The Portuguese golfer started the tournament ranked 83rd and needed to break into the world top 60 to qualify for Dubai. His 3rd place finish in South Africa enables him to do just that, and pushed him to a career high number 56 in the world.
Ricardo Gouveia expressed his delight after a strong finish at the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player saw him book his place in next week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
Gouveia, who topped the Challenge Tour Rankings last season, posted a five-under-par 67 on Sunday to finish in a tie for third place on seven under.
The 25-year-old secured his spot in this week’s field with a strong performance at the Turkish Airlines Open last weekend and Gouveia is thrilled to have repeated the trick this week.
He said: “It’s massive for me to make it to Dubai. Going into the last regular-season event in Portugal, I had to play well to get into Turkey and then I had to play well in Turkey to get in this week, and again, I had to play well this week to get in Dubai.
“So I’m just really happy.”
Gouveia began his final round nine shots behind overnight leader Jeunghun Wang after producing rounds of 74, 68
and 72.
And he started brightly on day four, firing back-to-back birdies at the second and third holes to get to four under.After dropping his first shot of the day at the fifth, Gouveia made a gain at the ninth to reach the turn in 34.
Gouveia picked up further shots at the tenth and 11th before carding a second bogey at the 13th.
And birdies at the 15th and 17th saw him move to seven under.
“It was a great week,” added Gouveia. “I didn’t start very well but I knew my game was good. I just stayed patient.
“I’m very satisfied to shoot a five-under round on the last day.”