In a few hours, the great challenge of the Final Stage of the DP World Tour Qualifying School begins. A total of 156 players will compete over the next six days, ninety holes to be exact, to finish among the top 25 and ties and thus secure playing rights on the European Tour for the next year. Before that, the challenge has been for the dedicated maintenance staff of Infinitum Golf, the Tarragona course that serves as the venue for the Final. They haven’t had to face a socket, frog jump, out-of-bounds pull, or missed miliki, but rather 500 litres of water per square metre on 36 holes. The task has been immense. A monumental job against the clock to ensure the course was ready for the Final.
Let’s remember that the Final Stage is played on two courses: Hills and Lakes. The area is vast and, of course, the work is doubled to restore bunkers, drain water, and maintain the greens. Considering how the two courses look less than 24 hours before the start of the Final, it must be said that the work has been outstandingly successful. “Just being able to play here is enough to take your hat off to what they’ve done after all the water that’s fallen,” explains a man seasoned in a thousand battles who has seen it all, like Gonzalo Fernández Castaño.
The Hills is in much better condition than the Lakes. It’s easy to explain. The Lakes is lower, as its name suggests it has many lakes, and the water table is much higher. The rain has caused some lakes to overflow and has significantly affected some holes. The most affected are 4, 13, 15, and 18. When we say they’ve had to perform miracles to manage the situation, we mean that some decisions have been made that will change the structure of some holes.
On hole 4, a par 3 with water, one of the green bunkers is completely flooded. Given the impossibility of removing that water, it has been decided to play it as a water penalty area. In other words, like another lake. As a result, the water now reaches the green, making this hole a bit more difficult. There is less margin for error.
On hole 13, a short par 4 that can be driven to the green, they have found that the lay-up area is flooded, meaning there is no option to play short, to place on the fairway. If we add to that the fact that the water reaches up to 20 metres before the green, it turns out that even those who drive to the flag may find it materially impossible to avoid that water. As a result, it has been decided to shorten the hole. A forward tee will be placed so that it can be driven directly to the green, even with a 3-wood, for the longest hitters.
These are two emergency solutions that have pleased the players, something that is not easy in these circumstances. “They’ve turned out to be two very good holes. The par 3 is still good and hole 13 has become almost more interesting,” confesses Borja Virto, another of the Spaniards present in this Final.
In the cases of holes 15 and 18, it has not yet been decided what will be done. For now, they were trying to drain as much water as possible, even digging trenches in the fairways, to be ready for tomorrow. It is also possible that some areas of some greens will be unusable. In any case, hats off to the DP World Tour and the maintenance staff of Infinitum for the tremendous work they’ve done to manage a really difficult situation.
As for the course conditions, as you can imagine, it is quite heavy, which translates to longer. Additionally, the rough is quite penalising. As it has rained so much and is so wet, it hasn’t been possible to cut it. They might try to get the machines in between this afternoon and tomorrow morning wherever they can. On the other hand, the greens are impeccable. It’s true that they are very receptive, as expected, but the ball rolls very well. Another success.
The Final Stage of the Qualifying School starts this Friday with the presence of eight Spaniards: Gonzalo Fernández Castaño, Borja Virto, Albert Boneta, Luis Masaveu, Joseba Torres, Santi Tarrio, Sebas García Rodríguez, and Adri Arnaus.
