“I’m still coming to terms with it. On Thursday in Brisbane I wasn’t even aware that I was playing in the European Tour. I didn’t realise until all the messages started coming in on my mobile in the afternoon. I’ve never received so many. I was leading a Tour tournament… It’s been two mind-blowing weeks.”
Joel Moscatel (Barcelona, 14-7-1998) speaks to Ten Golf from his home in Lleida as he finishes shaking off the jet lag. “It’s much easier on the way back than on the way there,” he confesses. He has just returned from Australia, where he has had the two best weeks of his sporting career, with two significant results: seventh and thirty-third in the second and third tournament of his life on the DP World Tour. “If there’s one thing I’ve realised or confirmed at the Australian PGA and the Australian Open, it’s that I want this to be my place. There’s nothing I want more,” he says.
He describes himself as a nervous person, although he doesn’t convey this in conversation. Quite the opposite. He chooses his words carefully, is cautious and shows that he has a very well-organised mind and his feet firmly on the ground. He aspires to play with the best and win tournaments, but he knows that all of this, which is very nice, has a process and each player has their own pace. “Obviously, it was a shame to miss out on the DP World Tour card by one shot at the School Final, I would have been thrilled to get it, but the reality is that the Challenge Tour is where I wanted to be. If before the start of the first phase of the School they had told me that I was going to have the full Challenge card and that I was going to be able to structure the calendar as I wanted, I would have signed up for it.”
The two tournaments in Australia have been like a beautiful parenthesis in the exciting season that Joel has ahead of him. “They were like a cloud, like a false reality. At most I’m going to play four or five more tournaments on the European Circuit, so I’m clear that my Tour is the Challenge. You can’t lose focus. It’s the priority. I’ll only play on the European Circuit if the tournament doesn’t affect my preparation for the Challenge. I know it’s going to be a very good school and if it’s a good year, the Tour will come,” he explains.
Moscatel has learned a lot in the last two months. It’s been a crash course in golf. In this respect, he gives a lot of credit to those who have accompanied him. “I’ve been playing very well with all the help Larry (Alejandro Larraábal) has been giving me, and both at the School and in Australia I’ve learned a lot from Job Sugranyes, Alberto Calvo and David Morago, the three caddies who have accompanied me and to whom I’m very grateful,” he points out. Job was with him in the first phase of the School, Alberto in the second and the Final and David in Australia. High level. They are Tour level caddies, with bags on their backs like those of Matteo Manassero, Guido Migliozzi or Adri Arnaus, among others. The lessons are almost endless.
“They’ve helped me a lot on and off the course. I’ve been very comfortable. At Las Pinaíllas (second phase of the School), for example, I was a bit dizzy with the wind and Alberto was telling me everything I had to do. They’ve transmitted patience to me. I’m a bit nervous and tend to speed up, both in the short game and in the swing, and they’ve transmitted calmness to me, not to rush… They’ve also helped me to know my patterns, my tendencies and to play with controlled aggression. They were pulling the cart. It’s not that I play with fear, but maybe at some moments prudence pulls you and they would tell me: “Joel, full equipe, you hit very hard and here we go with everything. Without losing your head, but with everything. You have to take advantage of the weapons you have,” he says.
And yes, Joel hits very hard. He goes very long. He also confirmed this in Australia. “Maybe I was there with Min Woo Lee, not much more. One day I played with Lucas Herbert, who I loved, he’s great, but I was going longer,” he says with a smile. The data corroborates this. He was the longest at the Australian Open (324.27 yards on average) and second in strokes gained with the driver at the Australian PGA behind Min Woo Lee.
A good example of his enormous power was the drive on the 18th hole of the The Australian Golf Club on the last day of the Australian Open. “We had the breeze in our favour and had to make 293 metres in flight to pass a bunker. I hit it very well, dry, those that you know have been good, and I put it 360 metres in the fairway. I hit a 54-degree wedge second… on a par 5”. Impressive. On average, Moscatel makes 280 metres in flight, without needing to push more than necessary, hitting normally.
No one is going to take away from Joel having been the leader of a European Tour tournament in his second participation, but he knows that he still has room for improvement. He has brought back some tasks from Australia. “In the Australian PGA I felt very comfortable despite being up from the beginning, I liked that a lot, but I admit that in the last round of the Australian Open, I was a bit affected by the amount of public there was. I had never seen so many. The course roared and it really reminded me of Augusta. I found it hard to keep my focus during the round. I suppose it’s a matter of experience and living more situations like this. At the same time, I loved playing with so many people and the good energy they transmit. I really liked Australia, its public and its way of understanding sport,” he assures.
Another of the tasks he has set himself has more to do with the game, specifically two areas: the wedges and the short game. “I think my long game is good, but I have room for improvement from 80-100 metres down and around the green. Because of my characteristics, I have a lot of wedges in my hand for the second and those have to be birdie opportunities. Sometimes I get streaks and I can leave many in a row very close, but others it goes away and ends up five, six or seven metres away. The goal is to be more consistent and try to leave them on average closer, less than three metres. Besides, this helps everything, not only to make more birdies, but also, when you miss the street, not to try a heroic shot to save par. You take it out there to 80 metres with the confidence that you can make approach and putt,” he explains with sensational maturity, reminiscent of the best Dustin Johnson.
Many people over the years have told Joel that phrase that many young professionals have surely heard: “you have the game”. But of course, it’s not the same to hear it as to check it. In Australia and the School, this young 25-year-old golfer, born in a hospital in Barcelona, raised in Lleida and matured in golf in El Prat in Barcelona, has been able to see it with his own eyes. Now, the next goal is to cross his fingers to be able to prolong the cloud moment a little longer and play in Mauritius, the last tournament of the year on the European Tour. At the moment, he is fifteenth reserve and there are real options. To continue learning and growing.
