“Bloody hell with The King, every time I look at the leaderboard you’re up there…” . The person speaking as if it’s completely natural is Iván Cantero (-3) and his remark is aimed at Alejandro del Rey (-5). They have just finished almost at the same time the first round of the Turkish Airlines Open. Each finished on a different hole. They are the two best Spaniards of the morning tee at the National Golf Club in Belek
Cantero isn’t wrong. Del Rey began the Volvo China Open with a ten-under round and today he opened with five-under. He’d sign for that score every Thursday of the year. Even more so this week, with the uncertainty of what will happen from Friday night onwards. If as much rain as the forecast suggests arrives, nobody here rules out finishing at 54 holes
Del Rey has gone to the top, tied with Ewen Ferguson (-5), oddly one of his playing partners in this Turkish morning. “What a pinpoint wedge that guy has just stuck,” Alex tells Borja Navarro, his caddie, after seeing Ferguson’s third shot at the 14th. It’s true, he left it very close. The Scotsman’s and Del Rey’s wedges today were no joke. Weapons of mass destruction. They left them very close and it’s not easy on this course. The greens are large and very undulating, so it’s key to hit the correct platforms. In other words, treat each green as if it were much smaller than it looks
The Madrid native admits he’s worked a lot on his wedge play in recent days, even during the six-week pre-season he took before the Volvo China Open. “I’ve done a lot of gym work and worked on some technical things that I’ve discussed with Dave Philips (my coach) for some time. I’m not one for many changes and the ones I make are always very gradual. So I work on the same things for a long time. That said, when I went out to play with my friends in Madrid, every time I missed a wedge my stomach would churn. I could hit ten good ones, but the first bad one made me really angry,” he explains
Be that as it may, the break has done the Madrid man a lot of good. This round in Turkey is the confirmation. He posted a great Volvo China Open on a course open off the tee, the sort that, in theory, suits his driving. However, the National Golf Club is the complete opposite. It’s a narrow, not particularly long course, yet he’s managed to exploit it too. “From 10 to 18 I hardly hit the driver and from 1 to 9 a bit more, but not much,” he says. In other words, it’s a course that forces him to keep a tight rein
Today he only made two bogeys. At the 17th hole he missed the tee shot with an iron to the left and his second shot with the 9-iron hit a branch and lost distance. He came up short of the green and couldn’t make the approach and putt. At the 2nd hole he went into the water off the tee, a frequently visited area, and carded a big bogey
Another key to his round today was his good performance with the putter. He changed putter the week of the Kenya Open after a somewhat tricky start to the season in this part of his game. He put into the bag the ‘Duende Verde’, the nickname that Alfredo García Heredia popularised when he finished second in 2024 at the Omega European Masters. It’s a Lab with a head the colour of hope. “It gives me more confidence, it soaks up everything on three-metre downhill putts, where I’ve always been good”
There’s still a long way to go, but needless to say a victory in Turkey would push Del Rey straight into the PGA Championship via Race to Dubai
