Pablo Larrazábal is starting his 18th season on the DP World Tour. He’s come of age. Not old. Careful. Those are different things.
Yes, it’s true that he’s already achieved a lot. There are his nine victories, of course, his overwhelming charisma, his connection with people, his scares, his approaches, his hands, his gestures, his magnetism with the camera, his fists… All of that is true. You could almost say he has nothing left to do. That he’s earned playing golf for the sheer enjoyment of it.
However, at 41 years old, heading towards 42 in May, and with fatherhood just begun, the Barcelonian wants to send a message. And he does so in Ten Golf. He does so in Dubai, on the eve of the first Rolex Series of the year. “I still have a great ambition to achieve and I’m going to hold on as long as I can to achieve it.”
Pablo remembers his first tournament on the DP World Tour with a card as if it were yesterday. It was 2007 and back then it was simply called the European Tour, and the ranking was referred to as the order of merit as it always had been. “It was at Leopard Creek and I started well. I shot 70 on Thursday and 70 on Friday and placed in the top 10. Saturday came, I teed off at the 1st, took the 3-wood and hit a shot that went 50 metres. Right there I said to myself: welcome nerves to my life, it was the first time I felt something like that. From there to today,” he states.
If the current Larrazábal could have a chat with the one from 2007, the young one would be gobsmacked. He’d think it’s an alien come to tell him a science fiction story. “Honestly, when I arrived on the Tour, I would have signed to stay for two or three years. I didn’t think beyond that because of the quality I had and because I didn’t know I could dedicate myself to this or that you could make a life travelling and enjoying it. I didn’t know. I was totally naive and zero professional,” he explains.
Really, the young Pablo who starts playing golf doesn’t have the professional world in mind from the beginning. Not at all. “I had no idea what the European Circuit was. The only thing I knew was because in 1995 and 1999 the Open de España was played at El Prat and we went to see it. The first time the only thing that really mattered to me was that between Eduardo de la Riva and I, we got 256 balls and 65 gloves. Actually, the bug bit me when I caddied for my brother Alex at the Open de France,” he notes. That, of course, has its story.
Larrazábal, with his usual touch of exaggeration, points out that they were almost thrown out of the tournament. “We played with Mark James and, of course, it wasn’t Mark James’ or Alex’s fault, only mine. It was the second round, hole 15. Our only doubt was whether we were going to miss the cut by 10 or 14 shots. Alex hit one of his from the tee, a classic pull hook, correct. It went to the left rough, short. We hit the second shot and that’s when I realised how fast those guys played. I was putting the club back in the bag and just when James was in the backswing, the club fell and bounced off the bottom of the bag making quite a noise. I haven’t forgotten the telling off James gave us… Rightly so,” he comments with laughter.
Beyond the anecdote, that Open de France, in 2003, was when Pablo really fell in love with that life. It was when he said this is what I want for myself. Curiously, five years later, on that same course is when he realises that maybe it’s not two or three years on the Tour, but a few more. “In the first round of the Open de France I shot six under, it was my sixteenth tournament with the card. I took the lead and that’s when I believed it. The cameras came, the attention, the crowd… and I loved it. I loved it a lot. I was a 25-year-old kid, which now is like being 15, and I felt good with 40,000 people in Paris. I see it now on TV and I’m terrified, but on the course, I was delighted to be there and the support of the crowd. I was captivated by that feeling,” he notes.
So much so that he has no doubt in pointing out that that walk from the fairway to the green on the 18th hole at Golf National, with the ball already on the green and a four-shot lead, has been the best moment of his career. “It was the first, what opened the way. There have been many good things, but nothing like that,” he explains.
Today, 17 years after that, after passing the Final Stage at San Roque with his friend Fernan García Grout, whom he called at the last minute as he didn’t even know it was mandatory to have a caddie, or still remembering those one-handed chips his first caddie on the Tour, Johnny Curtis (a fellow in world championships of Nick Price and Mark McNulty), he remains at the forefront, ready to win the tenth, to keep giving scares and presenting the new garments of his golf brand 11:30.
Well, this is not over. There’s still a lot of Pablo to come. It’s time for him to confess his great ambition. “I have two dreams to fulfil. I want to win as a father and wait a while and win again in front of my son, so he is aware that dad did it. That is, win when he’s 7-8 years old, so he knows what his father did, that yes, he played golf, but there were other things. I want my son to see beyond the record, to realise all the affection I’ve received over the years around the world and that it’s worth more than the victories or the money earned. I’m going to hold on now more than ever, as much as I can, so that Thiago and those who come, know what has been. I want him to understand and enjoy it. I want him to understand and be proud of dad.”
Undoubtedly, a magnificent piece of news for Spanish golf.
