– Tension at the Emirates. There are four Spaniards who have had to grit their teeth to make the cut at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Each in their own way. Some making a comeback, others holding on when things were getting very ugly. Let’s break it down.
– Alex del Rey (-1) theoretically made it comfortably, but got a scare on the 18th. He finished in the friendliest part of the course, but there’s really no friendly part here if you’re not on the right path. The Madrid native, impeccable all day with the driver from the tee, missed the mini driver on the last hole’s tee shot, the iconic par 5 of the Majlis. On this course, you can’t take anything for granted. He saved a great par on the 15th, missed a splendid birdie chance on the 16th, and had the 17th and 18th left to make a move and climb up. However, the opposite happened. On the 17th, he couldn’t make the birdie, and on the 18th, he ended up saving a good bogey.
Back to the tee. The mini driver goes left and closes. Bad news. The desert awaits, and anything can happen there. You might hit a bush, though there aren’t many, end up under a tree, or even on top of a palm tree. Dramas lurk with a shot like that. However, defying Murphy’s law, Alex got lucky. His ball bounced off a tree and landed in the rough. Even luckier: he had an awkward stance, very close to a trunk, with barely any room to get it back on the fairway and not much else. Suddenly, it turned out his foot was on a sprinkler head, and he was able to drop. He moved away from the trunk. Bingo. With a clear path, he decided to go for the green. “It was a 6-iron to smash it into the tent at the back. No doubt about it. I had more than enough club, but I caught a lot of grass. A bad shot,” he tells Ten Golf.
The ball doesn’t reach the green and ends up in the water. He faces the fourth shot. A double bogey would suffice, but it needs to be done without messing up. He puts it on the green and two putts. Cut made, but with some suffering.
– Iván Cantero (-1) experienced something similar on the 17th, finishing his round. He was one under par, but his ball from the tee ended up in a bush. He didn’t drop, but got it out as best he could. He ended up making a bogey, but the mess could have been huge if he hadn’t gotten out of the bush. “One day I’m going to have a heart attack,” says Adolfo Juan Luna, his caddie. That put him at par. A bogey on the 18th was forbidden. Iván took it literally and played an impeccable hole. Great tee shot and another galactic 7-wood. Two putts for birdie.
– Jorge Campillo (-1) was in trouble with two holes to go, with three consecutive bogeys on holes 12, 13, and 14. Earlier, he added another bogey on the 5th after sending his ball into the water again from the tee with the 3-wood. He’s definitely hitting it very long. However, he finished with birdie-birdie on the 17th and 18th.
– Ángel Hidalgo (PAR) was at par finishing on the 9th. The last thing he did was a double bogey on the 4th. A struggle. He strung together five pars in the most difficult part of the course, playing for the cut. A lot of courage. On the 9th, he secured the weekend with a tense one-and-a-half-metre putt. Golf takes years off your life.
– By the way, Cantero and Del Rey, who might play together tomorrow, jointly spoke to Ten Golf to share their feelings. Beyond both hitting the ball well and being happy with their game despite the result, it’s worth noting that Iván ended a debate in one fell swoop. Who hits it longer? “Alex, no doubt. I go all out on every drive, and he still beats me, so if we’re both going full throttle, he always wins,” he said. “If Iván says so, I have nothing more to add,” Alex replied, raising his fist…
– Speaking of Del Rey’s hitting. These first two days in Dubai have probably been the best of his career with the driver from the tee, a club that brings much glory to the Madrid native and also gets him into a lot of trouble. It seems he has found a new weapon of mass destruction. His Titleist driver, which was already a few years old and used the previous week, has gone to a better place. To put it simply, it broke. It wasn’t very obvious, but Alex noticed because it started acting up on Sunday at the Dubai Invitational.
That day he was playing with Nicolai Hojgaard. He was amazed by the Dane from the tee. So much so that as soon as he finished playing, he went to the Callaway truck and asked them to set up the same driver as the twin. He tried it for the first time in Tuesday’s practice round, and the sensations have been magnificent from the start. Today he was majestic. “Yes, these could perfectly have been the best driver rounds of my life…” admits Alex.
– The downside of the day was for Eugenio Chacarra and Pablo Larrazábal. Both missed the cut. Chacarra, who was already struggling with physical issues last week, had difficulties with his equipment this week, as the face of his driver broke. When things aren’t going well, they’re not going well.
