Nacho Garrido struggled to recall a training session with Adri Arnaus better than the two they held last week before the start of the Dubai Invitational at the Dubai Creek Resort. And it’s not like they’ve had few training days, these intense and Stakhanovite golf lovers. When they get down to it, they really get down to it.
Yesterday, Tuesday, it can also be said that Arnaus nailed it from the tee in the ProAm of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, at his beloved Emirates Golf Club. He hit ten fairways, a more than relevant figure on a course with narrow and winding fairways like the Majlis course. Whether he will play this week or not, it can be said that Adri’s golf is ready to go.
Things are going very well on the practice field. The new driver (Callaway Paradym Smoke) has adapted like a glove to the golfer’s whirlwind swing from Moià. Now all that remains is for this to be reflected on the golf course. This is perhaps the most titanic and unstable task in this sport: transferring the sensations from the driving range to the tournament. Arnaus is on it.
Adri is a bullet in the chamber of the Armada this week. He feels that his game is getting better and better, although it may be too early to see it in its full dimension. He needs that extra bit of confidence that allows a player to let go in competition just as he does on the court. If he finds it, hold on, because the Emirates Golf Club is one of Arnaus’s gardens. “It’s probably my favourite course of the year on the DP World Tour. If it’s not the most, it’s very high up,” he assures Ten Golf.
The results confirm this. He has played this tournament five times and his record is a third, a ninth, a thirteenth and only one missed cut. Of the 18 competition rounds he has played at the Emirates, twelve have been under par. Sixty percent.
Arnaus is carefully preparing for the tournament. The goal is to save all possible energy for the competition. He took Monday off, played 18 holes in the ProAm yesterday and today he has walked the first nine hitting only from 100 meters down to grease the wedges. In fact, he felt he needed to fine-tune this area because in the ProAm he hadn’t left them as close as he demands of himself. In addition, he preferred to lower the intensity today because he had had some slight neck discomfort as a result of the intense work pace prior to the start of the year. Better safe than sorry.
By the way, just like last week, Arnaus is going to play the Desert Classic with five wedges in his bag, from 46 degrees to 58, something that is very unusual. The goal is to limit the gaps in those delicate distances that range from the 147-148 meters he hits with the 46-degree pitching to the 103-104 he does with the 58. He still had to decide which two of these three clubs he was going to leave out of the bag: 17-degree driving iron, 3-iron or 4-iron. The 3-iron, a club that fits him like a glove for the 14th hole tee-off, was leading the race so far.
Arnaus is a bullet in the chamber, an option that can become the great asset at any moment.
