Pablo Larrazábal has signed today a more than notable record of 67 strokes on the fourth day of the Dubai Invitational, on the course of the Dubai Creek Resort. It has been his best result of the week. But, above all, he has taken away the best feelings from the four days of competition, especially throughout the first fourteen holes. “Today I have hit with the driver in a way more similar to how we have worked during the preseason, taking the club further back. In general, especially in the first fourteen holes, I have played great golf. In those holes I have made a partial of four under, but it could perfectly have been six or seven, without exaggerating,” explains the Barcelona native.
This round can be, in terms of sensations, a fantastic springboard for the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, a tournament that the Spaniard is going to dispute from next Thursday for the sixteenth time in his career and in which, for the moment, he has never managed to round off a great week. In fact, his best result is a twentieth place, which is not a disaster, but in no way fulfills the expectations of a winner of nine DP World Tour tournaments. He has signed excellent rounds at the Majlis course of the Emirates, but he has not yet put together four in the same week good enough to finish up or fight for the win.
“The truth is that at the Emirates things are much easier if you go long from the tee. Let’s see if there, as it happened to me today in several holes, I dare to take the driver’s club back and manage to gain that extra distance that helps me make more birdies,” he explains.
Larrazábal has gained during the last weeks, working at home, up to seven more miles of ball speed (from 169 to 176 miles per hour), but it is not the same to do it on the practice court as during the competition. You don’t let go in the same way.
The new drive from Callaway, the Paradym Smoke, is helping a lot. At least, Larrazábal has taken a liking to this new tool, but then you have to squeeze it in the same way when every stroke really counts. And that’s what the Spanish player is up to. The best example of how far Pablo can go is his drive today at hole 13, the last par 5 of the course, where he went up to 330 yards, one of the five longest drives of the day on that hole. Rory McIlroy, for example, has gone a little shorter today on that hole (323 yards), although he reached 339 yards on Thursday and 342 on Friday. Now, it’s not about going as long as the Northern Irishman, who after all remains one of the biggest hitters in the world, if not the biggest, it’s certainly not what a player like Larrazábal intends, but it’s also not bad to indulge in hitting hard and stepping on it from time to time…
