About Jose Manuel Lara

After turning professional at the end of 1997, Lara played on the Challenge Tour from 1998 to 2000. In 1998, he posted five top-10 finishes, highlighted by a win in the Warsaw Golf Open. Another five top-10 finishes followed in 1999, including second place in the season-ending First Cuba European Challenge Tour Grand Final. In 2000, Lara made the cut in all 18 of the events he entered, finishing 11th on the money list at the end of the year to earn his European Tour playing card.

2001 was Lara's first season playing full-time on the European Tour. He made the cut in seven of 15 events played and finished 158th on the money list at the end of the year. He struggled in 2002, only making five cuts out of 15 and finishing 164th on the money list.

Starting in 2003, Lara has been remarkably consistent, finishing in the top 100 on the Order of Merit each year. His highest finish during that time period was 30th at the end of the 2006 season, largely due to his first European Tour win at that year's Hong Kong Open.

In 2007, Lara got his first taste of international team competition, partnering with Miguel Angel Jimenez to play for Spain in the 2007 Omega Mission Hills World Cup. His European Tour results for the year were not particularly notable, with a seventh-place finish in the Mallorca Classic as the high point.

In 2008, Lara took second in the Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship and third in the EMAAR-EGF Indian Masters on his way to a 56th-place ranking on the money list at season's end. Through the first week of August, Lara has played 23 European Tour events in 2009, making the cut in 15. His best finish of the year was a seventh-place in the Moravia Silesia Open.