“Have you seen what’s happened with Iran? You’ll see what a mess that’s going to cause”. More or less, this was the phrase most heard in the clubhouse of the Stellenbosch Golf Club in South Africa last Saturday 28 February, in the different languages of that Tower of Babel that is the DP World Tour. A combined attack by Israel and the United States had just annihilated Ali Jamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. As in all walks of life, among golfers there are all kinds of profiles. There are the rational, the intuitive, the nervous, the calm, the alarmists, those who find out last, those who assume the worst, those who believe that in the end nothing ever happens… In short, the same as you observe daily around you, whether in your office, family or group of friends.
Golfers, however, do have the advantage over many others of being very well traveled. Far more than average. Therefore, beyond the logical concern about the global drift in the face of the conflict, the first worry that arose was what is going to happen with travel, especially after the closure of the airspace of Qatar and Dubai, main stopovers for the vast majority of Spaniards when they travel to Asia and Africa.
On Sunday 1 March there was no cause for alarm, since the vast majority who had played the South African Open were not going to leave the country to contest the Joburg Open. Another matter is now, once that last tournament of the season on the African continent is over. This week there is no tournament on the DP World Tour and practically everyone had planned their return home. But of course, in wartime you cannot always carry out your plans. Ten Golf has contacted the Navy, players and caddies to find out where they are and what they are going to do. The international chaos extends to golf as well.
Rafa Cabrera Bello, who has seen a few of these in his long career, looked for a plan B from the first minute. Before finishing the South African Open he already had an alternative to return home in case airspace remained closed in Doha and Dubai or, simply, his flight was cancelled. The Canarian has returned via London and is already at home. The same applies to Jorge Campillo, who from the outset had planned his return via London.
Similarly, Iván Cantero, Adolfo Juan Luna, Jesús Legarrea, Manu Elvira, Monty, Alex del Rey, Borja Navarro, Ángel Ayora, Juan Ochoa and Quim Vidal have all returned to Spain. That said, each has returned as they could. During the last two days of the Joburg Open, the place looked more like a travel agency than a golf tournament. The main problem was that the alternatives were few and, above all, very expensive, with tickets around €2,000. Cantero returned via Istanbul, Adolfo, Ochoa, Ayora and Legarrea via London and Manu, Monty, Alex and Borja had a stopover in Ethiopia.
However, the most curious cases are those of Ángel Hidalgo and his caddie Álvaro Alonso, Sebas García, as well as Rocco Repetto and his caddie Gonzalo Vicente. Hidalgo, faced with difficulties getting home, decided to join Álvaro’s plan, who had already planned in advance to travel from South Africa to Adelaide to spend the week with his partner Luna Sobrón, who is competing in the Australian Open. It should be said that next week the DP World Tour plays in China, so spending the week in Australia and then travelling to China does not seem the worst solution.
“I’ve never been to Australia and I really fancied it. We’ve managed to get permission for me to train at The Grange Golf Club, the course where the LIV Golf in Australia was played, so I’ll train there in the mornings and then I’ll go and watch and support the girls at the tournament”, he explains to Ten Golf. It doesn’t seem a bad plan.
Rocco and Vicente, for their part, have decided to extend their stay in South Africa by two and three days respectively and will travel directly to China on Wednesday and Thursday. In other words, a couple of days’ rest in Johannesburg and then straight to China to train and acclimatise in good time before the Hainan Classic. Sebas García has made the same decision. He would have preferred to return home, but things are as they are and you have to adapt. He was due to leave for China today and will spend about a week there half on holiday, half training before facing the Hainan tournament.
In principle, the DP World Tour is keeping all the tournaments of the Asian Swing. If nothing especially serious happens in the next few hours, the Hainan Classic will be played, then the Hero Indian Open, later a return to China for the Volvo and the swing will close in Turkey. All the tournaments remain on the calendar, including the second event of the HotelPlanner Tour in India next week. That said, everyone is on alert because things can change at any moment. This is the behind-the-scenes of what we see on television, what is not seen, the day-to-day, often chaotic life of a profession that is, at heart, a travelling circus.
