“Nine and a half. I can’t give myself less,” is how Ángel Ayora (-22) rates his season minutes after finishing the grand final in Mallorca at the Club de Golf Alcanada.
It’s worth remembering that the Marbella native started the year without even having a card for the Challenge Tour. He needed to accumulate 251 points in the nine tournaments where he could receive an invitation to access the rest of the year’s tournaments, and he did it. Not content with that, he gifted himself his first victory and now closes the season with two consecutive second places and securing fourth place in the Road to Mallorca.
The Spaniard set out this Sunday with the firm intention of winning the tournament and the annual ranking. It wasn’t to be. He fell one shot short of going to the playoff, yet Ayora is now a member of the DP World Tour. Ten months ago, he would have signed for it with blood. All of that outweighs fourteen painful holes where nothing went his way and made victory this Sunday very uphill.
“I have that bittersweet feeling of not really knowing what happened to me. I tried everything, and nothing worked. I’m proud of not giving up and making two birdies on 15 and 16. I had it in my hand on those two final holes, and although it didn’t happen, that’s also a consolation. I fought until the last moment,” the Spaniard states maturely.
Separately and without having been able to hear each other, his coach and caddie, Juan Ochoa, gives exactly the same rating for the year. There is synergy in the team even in those small details.
The Marbella native’s day started as a harbinger of what was to come. Two good shots left him with a difficult ten-metre putt for eagle. He left the green with a par. Three putts. Then, he strung together eight consecutive pars, playing well from the tee but lacking precision with the irons on some holes and missing makeable putts on others. The culmination was the bogey on the 9th hole. He missed a putt of barely a metre. Nothing, nothing was going right.
The pattern continued until the 15th hole, and when no one was counting on him, he rallied and gave himself a chance to win the tournament. Ultimately, he fell one shot short of the playoff, with two chances to get into it. Head held high, and don’t let the tree obscure the forest. He can’t reproach himself for anything. He tried until the last second, until the last putt, until the last breath. If anything, he showed in Mallorca that he doesn’t go down easily.
Next goal? “I’m not going to lie, it’s to win on the DP World Tour.” No half measures. Ángel wants to win, and he wants to do it as soon as possible. To start working on that goal, he will play the first four tournaments of the season: the two in Australia, Leopard Creek, and the event in Mauritius.
At the end of the day, Ángel met with Joel Moscatel, and they shared a heartfelt embrace. The thrill of having achieved the season’s goal outweighed any result from this week. Although it was already known before the tournament started, the two Spaniards ascend to the DP World Tour after battling through the 29 tournaments of the season. Total success.
