There are blows that hurt like a cold stab due to the mistake. And there are blows that hurt even more because they don’t seem to deserve that punishment. Those are the treacherous stabs. What happened to Pablo Ereño on the 17th at the Jonsson Workwear Durban Open clearly belongs to the second category.
A ball on the edge. A wind that pushes it a bit too much. A criminal bounce to the right. Out of bounds by an inch. And from there, a quadruple that snatched a very real chance of victory from his hands. But if this Sunday in Durban left anything, it wasn’t just the well-known cruelty of golf. It also left a certainty: Pablo Ereño is ready to win.
Because, beyond the quadruple, the Madrid native signed a round of very high level, got into the fight until the end, played it face to face with the eventual winner (Oliver Bekker, a Vietnam veteran) and, when the blow came, he didn’t crumble. He finished with a birdie, ended up third, added his second top 5 in four weeks and is now seventh in the Road to Mallorca. The first South African swing of the HotelPlanner Tour closes with a very serious balance.
“I had an incredible time today playing incredible golf”
The best part is that Ereño himself recounted it with a mix of honesty, competitiveness, and enjoyment that says a lot about how he is experiencing this moment, his good attitude, and his great ability to adapt and adjust. He summarised the last day to Ten Golf like this: “I had an incredible time today playing golf, to be honest. It was very, very fun”.
It’s not a minor statement. Not after a tense Sunday, with the crowd growing on the back nine and the tournament at stake in his very group. “In fact, the crowd started coming on the back nine because the winner and I were in the same group. So, nothing, to be honest, it was super entertaining”.
And then the phrase that best defines how he played: “I played textbook golf today, to be honest”. Textbook golf to get into the fight. Ereño describes a round of high quality, very well played from the start, with worked birdies, clear opportunities, and a sense of control. “I started super focused, playing perfectly the first nine”.
He detailed a sequence that perfectly explains why he was in the fight until the end: “I made a very solid birdie on the third, a very good birdie on the fifth, which was difficult with the wind against. On the sixth, I had a lip-out for eagle, which I didn’t understand. I had left it three metres away”.
Then came a bogey on the 7th, but with an immediate response: “A good bounce back on the 8th, good birdie”. And he kept pushing: “On the ninth as well, lip-out from the bunker”. The round had rhythm, had golf, and had something more: it had the feel of a direct duel.
A true head-to-head
The back nine turned into a beautiful fight, head-to-head, with constant exchanges of blows and responses. Ereño recounts it almost in match play terms, and he’s not wrong. “Then yes, the back nine got interesting. We were tied on the 13th tee because he birdied the 12th, leaving it very close. On the thirteenth, he left it about three metres away and I about two and a half. He makes it, I miss it. So I’m one down. On the next, I play the par five perfectly, hit a three wood to the centre of the fairway, five wood to the centre of the green, two putts and birdie, and he makes par. Tie”.
And the duel continued: “On the 15th, I hit a great shot on the par three, about three metres away. He hits a strange pull about eight metres away, makes it, I miss it. I’m one down again. On the next, we both hit the fairway and then the green about seven metres away… I make it, and he also about seven metres and misses it. Tie again. I even gave a fist pump there. I liked the feeling”.
And then comes the 17th: a good shot, a bad fate
The hole that changed the tournament. The hardest part for Ereño is not just the result of the hole, but the feeling that he did exactly what he wanted to do. “I tried to hit the shot I’ve been hitting all week on the 17th, a low, slightly cut shot with the driver. The wind was coming from my left and honestly, it started to catch it a lot”. Until the flight, just after leaving the club, it seemed good. Even in the group, it was called as good. “When my ball was flying, the guys in my group said ‘good shot’, you know, it seemed good. I mean, it seemed like it was going to the edge of the fairway. The wind caught it a bit too much, it bounced in the rough, bounced hard to the right and was out by an inch”.
And there’s the cruel image of the day: “It could even be played, it wasn’t even in the trees. I mean, I don’t know, it annoyed me a bit to be honest”.
The most valuable: he didn’t crumble
The quadruple could have broken the tournament for him… and his head. But it didn’t happen. At least not the latter. And that detail is probably one of the most important things Ereño’s Sunday left. He himself highlights it as something positive within the blow: “What I liked is that I didn’t crumble”. Even in the midst of the disaster, he was still mentally competing in the tournament, making calculations, looking for the gap: “I was on the 17th fairway, after my fifth shot and I thought: careful, he can make bogey here… Well, he had hit a bad iron to the left and if I make a triple, I go two behind on the 18th, which can be reached in one, I can make eagle, he par… and careful, there’s still a tournament…”. Pure conviction.
That’s competing, and he finished as he had to: “Por at least I fought for it. Then on the 18th, I made a good birdie to finish top five”.
Much more than a top 5
The final result is bittersweet. It hurts because victory was close. But it adds a lot. For ranking, for points, and for confidence. “Top five, more points and above all, I get into India directly without asking for an invitation”. That also counts. A lot. Because it turns a painful week into a useful week and a good round into a real step forward in the season. And Ereño, moreover, closed with an underlying reading that sounds like a player in evolution, with his feet on the ground and his head very well placed: “Positive, at least having finished with a birdie after making a quadruple… Happy, to be honest. I’m playing very well, I’m on the right track, and well, I know that sooner or later the victory will come”.
Pablo Ereño is truly knocking on the door. And when one knocks like that, it’s normal for victory to eventually come.
