– Juan Ochoa was just looking and calculating with his yardage book in hand. Looking and calculating. Looking and calculating. He only needed to use his fingers. His gaze was fixed on the 2nd hole. Without turning the page. “It can’t be, it just can’t be,” the caddie and coach told an Ángel Ayora who also didn’t understand anything. We take you to the action.
Ayora faces his second shot on this par 4 whose green is powerfully defended frontally by water and which was played with a headwind this Friday. They are in the right rough. That already throws them off a bit. They were convinced it had landed on the fairway, but against evidence, it’s better not to rebel. The calculations begin.
It’s 122 metres to the flag with, we insist, about 35 kilometres of headwind. Ayora hits 140 with the wedge. Perfect. It’s the club. The water doesn’t come into play and even if it might go a bit longer because it comes out loose from the rough (the famous and dreaded flyers), it will never fly more than 150 metres. They had between 25 and 30 metres of margin behind. We insist: headwind.
Well, as he hits the shot, Ayora feels that from his hands a ball hasn’t come out, but a projectile. Down, down, down, they implore… But nothing, that thing doesn’t come down. It lands long of the green, two more small bounces in the rough, slides gently along the path, meets the kerb and instead of climbing, acts like Juanito Oyarzábal. What a bad time to be Juanito. The ball gracefully climbs the kerb of the path and ends up just on the other side. Out of bounds. By two fingers. They couldn’t believe it. Days will pass and they will still be wondering what could have happened on that shot…
However, far from lamenting his luck and bitterly accusing himself of ineptitude, Ayora has made the decision to look ahead and seal an idea in his head: it had been a good shot, he had hit it exactly as he wanted. Row and be silent. And that’s what he has done. He made a good birdie on the 6th, committed a bogey on the 9th after a ball that ended up very awkwardly in the green bunker and said here I am, in case you had ruled me out for the victory, on holes 10 and 11. Imperial sequence of eagle and birdie.
It’s worth savouring the eagle. Today it was played with a tailwind. He teed off with the 3-wood. Impeccable. Centre of the fairway. Second shot, a 5-iron with a bit of draw and the ball half a metre from the hole. In. Impressive. Ayora, as honest as they come, explains: “I really wanted to hit the centre of the green, that was the idea. Basically, it was a missed shot. It came out more to the draw than I thought and the wind finished carrying it,” he tells Ten Golf. The joy was immense upon reaching the green, as they hadn’t seen where the ball had ended up. Another week with Ángel among the best.
– Second day and second withdrawal. Ashun Wu has withdrawn from the tournament while playing the second round. The Chinese player had been struggling with some shoulder issues, in addition to various personal matters that have kept him out of competition recently.
– Ángel Hidalgo met a neighbour today. It turns out that the amateurs accompanying the professionals change from day to day. Today, one appeared in Hidalgo’s group with a surprise. Specifically, the amateur playing with Dan Bradbury. It turns out that on the 1st tee, the man from Malaga found out he lives right next door in the marina of Sotogrande. Of course, knowing Hidalgo, they’ve already arranged to play at Valderrama on their return. “But I’m not giving him a single stroke, just so he knows.” And you should have seen how the neighbour played.
– Speaking of amateurs. With Ayora was the owner of the NFL team Los Angeles Raiders. Besides being a caddie, he had his golf coach in the group and they analysed every shot. Even watching videos… There’s people for everything.
– The worst weather day has passed. This Saturday the wind will blow again, but with less intensity than this Friday. It won’t be a pleasant day, but there will be many more rounds under par than today’s nine. Bet on it. And on Sunday, birdie galore. It’s true that the greens will be firmer and faster due to the heat and wind, but the day will be even more pleasant than Thursday. So, birdie galore.
