It was a long time ago, about two years, Eduard Rousaud and his coach Alejandro Larrazábal looked at each other with a puzzled expression. Something wasn’t right. They couldn’t quite understand it. They practised from dawn till dusk and the swing flowed beautifully. The ball went exactly where they wanted. They knew it was the right path, but suddenly the sequence started to fail. It wasn’t the same anymore. From one day to the next. Almost from one shot to another, it wasn’t working. It was an X-File that only caused despair and frustration. Rousaud’s body moved wonderfully until it stopped doing so. Forget about consistency…
As often happens in these situations, a golfer, and any top-level athlete, only understands one solution for a problem of this magnitude: work more, grind it out, repeat, internalise. That’s what Edu did. It never bothered this 24-year-old player from Barcelona to grab his golf clubs and start practising or playing 18 holes. He has the blessed fortune that his work is also his passion. “When I’m training, I prefer to have seven holes left rather than five,” he explains in a long and interesting interview with Ten Golf after returning from Thailand, where he secured his Asian Tour card.
The solution of putting in more hours wasn’t working. The sequence repeated itself. Everything was fine until it wasn’t. Suddenly, in one of those puzzled expressions, almost simultaneously, Edu and Alex, Alex and Edu, said to each other: “Could all this be related to a physical limitation?” Obviously, it wasn’t something serious, as there was hardly any pain, but the only reasonable explanation they found was that Edu’s body, and more specifically his hip, for whatever reason, didn’t allow him to make the movement consistently time and again. As long as his legs stayed fresh, he managed, but as soon as his strength waned a bit, problems arose.
That’s when David Puig comes into the picture, one of Edu’s best friends and someone always willing to lend a hand. The golfer from La Garriga gets him an appointment in mid-November 2023 at the TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) in the United States, and more specifically, with two biomechanics geniuses: Dr Greg Rose and Dave Phillips, coach of Puig, Jon Rahm, and Alex del Rey, among others. He spends barely a day with them, not much time, but enough for them to confirm that, indeed, there was a physical limitation. What was off in the sequence of his swing, when it failed, was the hip. As soon as there was fatigue in the legs, the left hip instinctively blocked to protect itself from a potential injury. Edu compensated with his hands and, of course, under pressure, inconsistency appeared. They knew what was happening, but they still didn’t know why it was happening.
Rousaud leaves California with a list of exercises that should improve his movement chain, and indeed, they have an effect. The sensations are positive, and he starts 2024 very well. In the first four tournaments of the Alps Tour, he achieves a second place, three top 12 finishes, and makes all the cuts. It seems like things are going well, but in reality, it’s almost an illusion. Yes, the exercises help, and so does the freshness of starting a year after a holiday, but the problems soon reappear. Frustration again.
Already at the Challenge de España, in Seville, in May, which ends with a victory for Joel Moscatel, Edu notices that there are stretching exercises that don’t work beyond a certain range, but he carries on. Really, at no point does it seem serious or severe, there’s not even much pain, just a discomfort.
That changes at the Challenge de Cádiz, in Sancti Petri, in June. That’s when pain appears for the first time, he misses the cut and goes straight to see Dr Cerrato at the Cemtro clinic in Madrid for a contrast CT scan. It will be the first time he hears this phrase that will change his life: “triple impeachment”. It sounds like a big problem for the President of the United States, but in reality, it’s a diagnosis of his hip problem. Now, eight months after being at the TPI, it seems they’ve found the root of the problem. Basically, in layman’s terms, Rousaud explains: “the femur and the acetabulum are two bones connected by a labrum in the hip, a kind of cartilage. What I had was an excess of bone, both in the femur and the acetabulum, and this was causing problems in the labrum, hence the pain and everything else.” One hears triple impeachment and might faint, but in reality, for Edu, it was a relief, the beginning of the end. On one hand, he knew what he had, and on the other, there was a logical explanation for why the swing wasn’t working in certain circumstances.
Already in Barcelona, the decision has to be made whether to undergo surgery or hold out until the end of the season. They do another contrast CT scan, and the doctor tells him: “it all depends on the labrum, if it’s completely torn, we must operate immediately, otherwise, you might need a hip replacement in three years. If the labrum isn’t too damaged, we could hold out until December…”
In early July, Rousaud drives from Barcelona to Almería to play the Alps de Andalucía. He is accompanied by Víctor García Broto. Before reaching Aguilón, the tournament venue, he receives the test report on his phone: “extensive labrum tear.” It’s over. Rousaud starts playing the tournament, shoots 72, but his mind is no longer there. Whether due to suggestion or a real physical issue, the pain becomes very intense, and he decides to withdraw from the tournament before playing the second round. It’s July 6th. His last competitive round was the day before.
“I was very lucky there. Through family contacts and my manager’s mediation, Gorka Guillén, we secured an emergency slot at the Dexeus clinic to be operated on by Dr Cárdenas, the best hip specialist in Spain. I couldn’t be more grateful,” he explains. On July 12th, he undergoes an arthroscopy. They place five anchors in his hip, heal the labrum, and shave down the femur and acetabulum. When he comes out of surgery, the doctor confesses that he had rarely seen so much excess bone, but everything went well. He will have to walk with crutches for 5-6 weeks, won’t be able to go out on the course until January, and competing will be impossible until February. This is when Rousaud’s Christmas miracle occurs…
Edu started working like a beast. He made a significant investment in physiotherapy. Three days a week with Iván Llull, brother of Sergi, a Real Madrid basketball player. Three times a day for eight weeks, he underwent cold water baths, sauna, programmed gym… Without rest. The recovery was going smoothly. In September, he started walking normally and noticed how the timelines were shortening. In mid-September, he began chipping and putting, always very carefully, little by little, and in mid-October, very slowly, he started hitting balls, at about 30 percent intensity. “I’m very stubborn and believe in myself a lot, so I signed up for the Asian School in December, knowing I could withdraw if things didn’t go well,” he explains.
On November 1st, another milestone in the recovery. He hits his first drive on the practice range. Edu himself keeps making progress. Muscle pain is not a problem, it’s bearable, lasts two or three days, and then he moves forward, the key is that the joint doesn’t hurt, and so far, it was responding perfectly. On November 10th, he goes out on the course for the first time, to his course, at Prat. Less than a month before the Asian School. From there, he works tirelessly. “I’ve never trained more in my life. Monday to Friday. I started at 5:30 in the morning and finished at 7:30 in the evening: cold water baths, gym, sauna, course, approach, putt… Everything was slow at first, gradually increasing the intensity. They were high-quality training sessions,” he notes.
At the same time, Edu works on his mind, not so much focused on competition, but from a personal perspective. Very valuable sessions with Joseba del Carmen. “I’m very happy. After the injury, I see things from a different perspective. I value being on the golf course much more and have started to downplay the importance of the result. Obviously, it’s always there, it’s still a goal, I still want to be Number One in the world, but giving much more importance to the present. I discover a different Edu, very at peace, although people might think I’m crazy. I’ve always liked having everything under control, I’m extremely demanding, and when things didn’t go well on the golf course, it caused me infinite frustration. However, with the injury, when you can’t compete and can barely get up to get a glass of water, you’re dependent, you start to value family moments more, visits from friends… You don’t need to control everything, you don’t have to find an explanation for every bad shot. I’m calmer, more relaxed, finding more of my essence,” he states.
On December 10th, exactly a month after going out to play the course for the first time, he plays his first 18 holes of competition in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. It’s the first round of the Asian Tour School pre-qualifying. Four months ago, he was lying on a stretcher in an operating room. It’s the first time he’s played 18 consecutive holes.
Rousaud has played nine consecutive rounds under par in Asia, the four in the pre-qualifying and the five in the final, and has secured his card for the next year, finishing in 16th place. But the most important thing is that he hasn’t felt any pain and has enjoyed being on the course. “I’ve regained my connection with the putter, I’ve hit more freely, and as a result, I’ve also hit longer, I’ve enjoyed it like a little kid. I won’t deny that I didn’t enjoy the last day as much, there was pressure and tension because once there, I was very excited to get the card, it was the goal, and I had it within reach. But within all that, I enjoyed it in my own way. After all, it had been five and a half months, since July 5th, without being able to do it. I’m very proud and happy, but more for all the work that has brought me here than for the result itself,” he points out.
Edu has opened a new chapter in his career. Having identified and solved the problem, he conveys to the listener the feeling that he emerges much stronger, mentally more prepared, with renewed enthusiasm. Watch out, Rousaud is coming, a player who was capable of starting his first US Open, still as an amateur, by holing out from the fairway on his opening hole for an eagle. “The worst part of that whole stage before the injury and diagnosis was that I couldn’t consolidate that small technical change. Sometimes it takes longer, but you know that with repetition and work, you eventually achieve it. The hip wouldn’t allow it, and I kept hitting a wall. When the frustration is so great, you don’t enjoy it, and that’s what I missed the most.” The wall has fallen. Edu is back.
It’s the Christmas miracle of Rousaud.
