Nacho Elvira is going to play the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, but at the time of writing this story, he has not yet arrived in Scotland. His plane will land today in Edinburgh at a quarter past eleven at night, local time. His tee time this Thursday from the 10th tee at Carnoustie is scheduled for 10:28 in the morning. Between landing, if there are no delays of course, and hitting the first shot, less than 12 hours will pass. He has never done anything like this in his entire career.
The Cantabrian golfer has not made this decision on a whim, but rather forced by circumstances. It all has to do with health and, more specifically, an untimely bug in the form of a virus that has seen fit to roam freely in the Elvira family in recent days. The problems, in fact, date back to last week at the Acciona Open de España. Without making excuses, he would never do so, the eldest of the Elvira family already played impaired at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, where he missed the cut after a very poor first round.
The matter has been no joke and has ended with all family members in the hospital. This Tuesday, no less, Nacho still had an IV to recover part of what the virus had taken. On Monday alone, he had lost three kilos and more than eleven since the Open Championship. It has been nine very complicated days in which Cristina, his wife, has been hospitalized. Because of all this, Nacho has been delaying his trip. In fact, he had a flight for Monday, missed it, and booked another for Tuesday… and missed that one too. Today he is finally flying to Scotland.
Some might wonder why he hasn’t withdrawn from the tournament. The explanation is that he had decided to skip the Open de France next week. If he hadn’t played in Scotland, it would have been two consecutive weeks without competing and without earning points. He is aware that he is not going to compete in the best conditions, without practicing on the course and without touching a club since Friday, but he finished the second round of the Open de España with good feelings and wants to earn points to climb higher in the Race to Dubai and fight for one of the PGA Tour cards. Expectations are low, but you never know. His caddie, David Morago, has been in Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, and the Old Course all week to pave the way as best as possible for Nacho.
Interestingly, one of the first things Elvira will see when he arrives at Carnoustie will be the American actor Michael Douglas. He will be his playing partner, as remember the Dunhill Links is played in a Pro AM format. He will have a good story to tell him these days. At least, Elvira knows the three courses in the tournament rotation very well, as he has played them many times. In fact, the last top 10 by a Spaniard was achieved by him in 2018.
