Before heading out to play the final round on Sunday, David Morago had already won the Soudal Open. He had dreamt about it the night before. “It was a strange feeling, but very real. In a way, it gave me peace of mind, it was as if I had already lived it,” he assures from Hamburg to Ten Golf the caddie of Nacho Elvira.
We label him as a caddie, although deep down it falls short. Morago still has the soul of a player, his eyes shine in a special way when he trains and he is passionate about being a caddie. It is something like the holy trinity of the sport of the 14 clubs. “For two years I have been trying to answer the question of what I am and what I am going to do with my life. What I am clear about is that I love being close to competition, I don’t like the routine of spending nine hours in a club giving classes. Sunday was a very cool day, a ballsy day,” he says. We agree that the label that best defines him is: a golf man.
David was a more than promising amateur player. In 2013 he was runner-up in Europe at El Prat only behind the English Ashley Chesters and in a tournament where Jon Rahm, Thomas Detry, Grant Forrest, Renato Paratore or Adrian Meronk were. An injury truncated his evolution and hand in hand with Javier Sainz he embarked on teaching and the profession of caddie. He loved it. He also worked with Adri Arnaus and now he has just achieved his first victory in the DP World Tour as Nacho Elvira’s faithful squire. He has only been with the Cantabrian for five months, but they have connected very quickly in a very special way. “Inside I feel like a player, but for X or Y I have not been able to compete. I love golf, I really like to learn and I have a great time,” he says.
You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to detect that there is a special chemistry between Elvira and Morago. We already know what golf is like and it is impossible to know how far the relationship will go, but for now, beyond the triumph in Belgium, they are doing great. Everything comes down to seeing life in a very similar way. We don’t know if it’s on his playlist, but David is well defined by the song of Fangoria: I don’t want more dramas in my life, only entertaining comedies…
“I am quite positive and natural. I say things as they are and as they come out. I find it hard to take things very seriously. I am not one to see drama in life. Don’t get me wrong, I am a compulsive perfectionist, I don’t take things lightly, but I like to have fun, I face life as a game and Nacho is also very natural, simple and humble. He is at a more relaxed moment in his life, about to become a father for the second time and this is like everything, we are at a moment that we have fitted very well and it is easier to be like this,” he reflects.
Morago argues that as a player he was very anxious. “I was always ahead and I found it hard to be in the present. Maybe that’s why, if I do something well now, it’s helping the player to be in the moment and not go any further. That was my main goal with Nacho on Sunday and always.”
It can be said that David has a knack for downplaying things. Sunday was literal. On hole 17, after missing the tee shot, they had a 205-meter shot to the flag. It was a textbook 2 iron, but they didn’t have it in the bag because it had broken on the practice range during the warm-up, a few minutes before going out to play. They could have lamented and cursed their luck, but what they did was look at each other and smile. “It is what it is, there is no more, to hit the 4 iron,” they told each other.
If he had to choose the key moments of Sunday, Morago has it quite clear. The first was on hole 1. When they arrived at the club, it seems that their prayers had been answered, as the DP World Tour had decided to move the tee forward. This meant that they could go out with the 2 iron… if they had had it, of course. “That first drive to the street was very important, as well as the whole hole, how well he played it, the birdie… It took away any nerves that might have been there, gave more tranquility and kept us even more in the present,” he says.
The next moment was on the 7th, after missing the tee shot and the ball ended up in a place where it could only be taken to the street. Plus, the downpour came. Half an hour stopped, under the umbrella and with that tee shot… “At another time it would have been a very tough situation, but we managed to get a few laughs and we managed to break the moment,” he explains.
Of course, everyone will remember those two approaches on holes 12 and 17, but David gives equal or more importance to the birdie on 11. “We were coming from making a bogey on 10 and it was like a message, a blow on the table. We were bleeding drop by drop and with that birdie it was like saying, watch out, I also know how to go forward.”
It is worth stopping at that chip on the 17th. “It wasn’t seen on television, but the ball was terrible, sunk and with a lettuce in front. The approach and putt he made is crazy, worthy of Spanish hands. In the preview of the US Open, the previous Monday, I remember he had a chip of about 20 meters and I gave him my opinion. It was a disaster. There I told him, look, around the green I won’t tell you anything again. That’s why, when we got to the ball on the 17th and he told me: “look at you, have you seen how the ball is, what do I do here… I shut up and looked at the sky, as if I hadn’t heard him,” he says.
As a good golf man, David, born in Barcelona, has Elvira very well defined. “With the wedges and approaching he is God come down to earth, with the medium and long irons he is very good, in fact, there are many tournaments where we have a better balance in the par 3 than in the par 5. We are the team of the ducklings, because of the large number of ‘2’ we make… Also, with the putt he is a great executor, I help him with the falls and he does it very well. Where there is room for improvement, and we both know it, is with the driver. We are working on that,” he assures perfectionist.
Once the can is open, they want to keep winning. They know that this will not be an easy week because the energy expenditure when winning is brutal, but they go with all the illusion, learning, improving and without dramas. “It makes me happier to see others happy than myself,” he concludes. In case you had any doubts about who David Morago is.
