Week of the European Open on a course, the North course of the Green Eagles Golf Courses, near Hamburg, which undoubtedly deserves the label of one of the most complicated of the year. This has been demonstrated edition after edition. Tom McKibbin, winner in 2023, triumphed with a total of -9; and Kalle Samooja, who won in 2022, did so with a total of -6. The top ten of the final classification was reached in both cases with totals of -2 and -1, respectively. In other words, four rounds of 72 strokes (we are talking about a par 73) can be a real hit…
We are facing a real monster that from the furthest tees goes over 7,200 meters, a footage only surpassed this season by the Blair Atholl Golf, where the South African Open was held, which can go up to 7,527 meters, but which is located more than 1,300 meters above sea level, so it could almost be reduced by ten percent in length.
In fact, the North course of the Green Eagles does not need to show all its claws or show all its teeth and is going to be played with an average footage of about 6,800 meters, as some tees are advanced. What happens is that, one more year, the course is very wet and the balls run just enough on the fairways, so it can also become a devilishly long course.
In addition, let’s not forget, we are talking about a course full of water hazards, which come into play on at least fourteen of the eighteen holes. A very tough test, despite the fact that up to six par 5s are played (holes 4, 9, 11, 15, 16 and 18). Last year, for example, three of these six par 5s (holes 4, 9 and 16) were played with an average of strokes above par in the total of the four rounds. On the 16th, a beast of more than 600 meters, a hitter above the average in distance on the circuit was playing yesterday driver, 3 wood and full blaster…
As we said: four rounds of one under par can be an excellent record at the end of the week. Even two rounds at par and two of one under par could get you into the final top ten. A curious simulation of a European-style US Open, speaking badly and soon, precisely two weeks before the third Major of the year at Pinehurst.
The Spanish Armada arrives on a roll after Adrián Otaegui and Nacho Elvira have won in China and Belgium the last two tournaments of the regular DP World Tour calendar. These kinds of ‘communicating vessels’ should not exist in an individual sport like golf, agreed, but there are, like the meigas. A Galician like Santi Tarrio knows a lot about this, who was precisely the best Spaniard in the last edition, going out on Sunday in the last matches three strokes from the lead. It is curious that Tarrio was a protagonist on the longest course of the year, as he is not a big hitter. Not everything is power: this week strategy, wedges on the third shots of the par 5s and, of course, efficiency with the medium and long irons, areas in which the Galician excels, count a lot.
The hat trick, a third consecutive victory for Spanish golf in the regular calendar of the European circuit, seems complicated. But well looked at neither more nor less than any week, if we look at the solvency of the Armada and the good form of many of its components. In addition to Tarrio, Adri Arnaus, Alejandro del Rey, Nacho Elvira, Manu Elvira, Pablo Larrazábal, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Adrián Otaegui, Sebas García, Ángel Hidalgo, Iván Cantero and Alfredo García Heredia will seek that third victory. The precedents, however, do not accompany too much. The best result of a Spaniard in the six editions of the European Open that have been held on this course is a fifth place by Otaegui in the first of them (2017).
