Hours, many hours, hours that have seemed a lifetime have had to wait, nail-less and almost fingerless, Jorge Campillo and Luis Masaveu to receive the happy news that they have made the cut in the Open Championship.
How beautiful a cut is. How exciting it is. How much drama and how much happiness. Just ask Max Homa, who celebrated his birdie on the 18th as if it were the very Claret Jug, or Tyrrell Hatton, who was beside himself when he found that his final bleed, with five bogeys in eight holes, sent him home early.
Finally, the +6 got in. It seemed impossible around noon, when it was circulating beyond the 110th position, shortly after Campillo finished, but the force of the south wind has turned Royal Troon into a minefield. The first nine were very difficult with the wind against and in the second nine, with the wind in favour it was like walking on a wire. Every shot depended on the first bounce. If it bounced hard and downhill, goodbye, baby…
There have been hours of anguish, of gritting teeth for some, and of battle stations for others. Until the end. With the soul in suspense until Tommy Morrison, the amateur European champion, and Guido Migliozzi certified the par on hole 18. A birdie from the two left the +6 out. The young giant left it just over a metre for birdie, tightening the knot of the tie. However, he missed the putt and even Migliozzi had to make a putt of a metre and a bit for par to get into the cut. Later still, we had to wait for Darren Fichardt and Masahiro Kawamura… In short, madness. Position 69 and to the weekend. Isn’t a cut beautiful?
Jorge Campillo takes a backpack off. It’s his first cut in a Major. At the seventh attempt. His big goal this year. The Extremaduran has it. He will play all four days in a Major. He deserved it. For his game and for his insistence. For perseverance. For his passion for golf. For how he lives and respects his profession. And he has entered through the big door, signing a sensational card of 68 strokes, the best of the day. Yes, Jorge has made the best round of the day in a Major. No one has played better than him. It doesn’t hurt to repeat it from time to time between today and tomorrow when he goes out to play the moving day.
Luis Masaveu, for his part, has achieved a milestone. He is the first Spanish amateur to make the cut in a Major after Jon Rahm in the 2016 US Open at Oakmont. Almost nothing. You have to see who the Madrilenian takes the baton from. In addition, he joins a club whose members can be counted on the fingers of one hand and where, among others, Sergio García and José María Olazábal are. Brutal.
And now, Luis, with the cut surpassed and the whole weekend ahead, has a fabulous record before him. Also with Jon Rahm as the protagonist. The best result of a Spanish amateur in a Major is the 23rd position of the golfer from Barrika at Oakmont. Right now, Masaveu is four strokes from this goal and with 36 holes ahead. Why not?
In addition, as if that were not enough, Masaveu will fight to be the best amateur of the Open in competition with Tommy Morrison, Jacob Skov Olesen and Calum Scott, the other three only amateurs who will play the weekend.
The flip side of the coin, on the part of the Armada, has been for Ángel Hidalgo, Nacho Elvira, Jaime Montojo and David Puig, who were left out of the cut.
