Head down, quick steps, and clenched jaws. That’s how Iván Cantero (-3) left the 18th hole at the Emirates Golf Club. That’s how he finished the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the first Rolex Series of his career. The two final bogeys on the 17th and 18th hurt. Every player in this tournament approaches the penultimate tee with the idea of taking at least one stroke off the course in that final stretch, but Cantero added two. Two bogeys. That difference of three, by simple arithmetic, means finishing in 31st place instead of in the top 20. It hurts, no doubt, and it’s something to come to terms with, but it would be unfair and even foolish not to delve deeper into the analysis.
The Asturian golfer from Llanes performed at an excellent level all week and especially this Sunday. He didn’t have an easy task. He played for the first time in a final round with a world top 10 like Fleetwood and an emerging star like Nakajima, with points and money at stake. It’s one of those tournaments that can change your year and even your life. And with all that, a great version of Iván was seen, better from the tee than on Saturday, hitting more powerful shots and playing more solidly and consistently than his two illustrious playing partners. He should have beaten them, but you know how golf is, in a single hole there was a swing of four strokes between Nakajima (an impressive albatross on the 18th) and Cantero (a painful bogey). The Japanese player finished at -5, the same as Fleetwood, who was at -2.
Cantero blames the two bogeys on the 17th and 18th on “the yips,” a very golf-specific expression meaning that your hands jerk on the putt due to tension and pressure of the moment. As if you received an electric shock. Iván has no doubt that this is what caused him to miss the putt of less than a metre he had on the 17th and the half-metre one he left on the 18th. “It’s something I have to learn, I have to work on this so it doesn’t happen to me because it’s not the first time,” he says. The important thing is to identify the problem and admit it, which is not too common in the world of professional golf.
Cantero was particularly concerned that he felt that short-circuit when he was actually playing to finish in the top 20, no more, but the reality is that it’s the first time he’s been in such a situation, in a tournament of this calibre and with high-ranking players. It’s all a process and a learning experience. The important thing is to keep putting yourself in those scenarios to become more and more comfortable. He should also appreciate that before those two errors on the 17th and 18th, he made very good putts from between one and a half and three metres for par throughout the round.
Beyond that, Iván should leave with the conviction and peace of mind that he played golf well enough to finish comfortably among the top ten of the tournament, even though the driver wasn’t good all week. His golf deserved more, even if on this occasion he didn’t reap the rewards.
It wasn’t the Sunday or the weekend for the Spaniards. Cantero’s par round was the best result of the day for our players. Nacho Elvira (+1) shot 74, Adrián Otaegui (+1) shot 73, Alfredo García Heredia (+1) shot 73, and Ángel Hidalgo (+3) shot 74. A meagre balance for the Armada in sacred territory.
