– Iván Cantero (-4) has signed a second round of 70 strokes and has secured the cut in the first Rolex Series tournament he plays in his career. He has passed his first test at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic with flying colours. These are objective facts to be satisfied with. And the Asturian is. But it’s not enough. There’s a change in mentality. “It’s good to make the cut, but it’s pointless if I don’t keep looking upwards over the weekend. If I finish 60th on Sunday, making the cut will have been of little use. Yes, I’ll earn some points and that’s fine, but over a season it means little. You have to keep looking upwards and playing well to finish in the best possible position,” he states.
It’s a change in mentality typical of maturity, experience, and above all, having had a tough time last year. He didn’t save his card until the last tournament of the year, when he finished third in Korea. Iván is not willing to wait that long in 2025 and, above all, wants to put himself in a position to win tournaments again, like in South Africa last year, or fight to be in the Dubai Final.
Cantero feels he has room for growth over the weekend at the Emirates. He is in the top 30 of the tournament without hitting fairways. He has hit seven over the two days. His trick to come out reasonably well from a statistic that is usually devastating at the Emirates is to hit hard. “I could tee it a bit lower and hit a held fade ball with which I would surely hit more fairways, but I would leave myself longer second shots, surely still missing fairways and then I’d be dead with a 7-8 iron in my hands from the rough. This way, when I miss the fairway, at least I have a wedge in hand. It’s about being closer to the green,” he notes.
With this strategy, which he is strictly following, he has already achieved ten birdies. In fact, curiously, his big burden in the tournament so far is the par 3s. Five of the six he has made this week have been on the short holes, although there is also an explanation and it’s nothing dramatic. “We haven’t had luck. They really haven’t been bad shots, practically none. We’ve missed the green by a little and it hasn’t settled well. It’s been more a matter of bad luck than bad swings,” says his caddie Adolfo Juan Luna.
As soon as he handed in his card for the second day, Cantero went straight to the practice range to hit drives. “If I manage to hit more fairways over the weekend, watch out,” he warns. Another consequence of that change in mentality. Welcome it.
– Daniel Hillier (-11) is the standout leader of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. It is the Australian’s third participation in the tournament and his 65 strokes today represent his best round here. He assures he hasn’t worked much in winter, but things have gone well for him. He has a three-stroke lead over the second place with the afternoon session still in play: Jason Scrivener (-8) and Laurie Canter (-8). Also up there are Min Woo Lee (-7), Rasmus Hojgaard (-7), Patrick Reed (-5) or Niklas Nordgaard (-5). Among those who missed the cut, beyond Jon Rahm, we must mention Thirston Lawrence, John Parry or Jorge Campillo.
– Ángel Hidalgo (-1) knew perfectly well after teeing off on the 17th that the magic had vanished. The Malagueño started the round like a shot. Masterful bunker escape on the 10th and birdie, great shot on the 11th and birdie, sensational long-distance putt on the 12th and birdie, and an epic 3-wood on the 13th, eagle. Five under in four holes. If he wanted to impress Luke Donald, he had succeeded. On the 15th, a bogey fell, an accident, a short missed par putt. However, from the 17th onwards, things changed. “I noticed it there. It was a terrible left tee shot. The mistakes I don’t like. Then, on the 18th, I made a birdie, yes, but really missing the 3-wood. I wanted to crash it against the tent, at the back of the green, and it barely cleared the water… Nothing, nothing, from the 17th it was the chronicle of a death foretold,” he assures.
So much so that he ended up asking for the time. “I thought I wouldn’t finish,” he points out. He made bogeys on holes 3, 5, 6, and 8 and still hit a tense shot on the 9th to not risk the cut. “The way I started, it was a shame to finish like this, but on the other hand, if at the beginning of the week they told me I was going to make the cut, I’d sign it with my eyes closed,” he states. By the way, for those more interested and nosy, Hidalgo has talked more about football with Donald than about the Ryder. “He told me he’s a Tottenham fan.”
– The wedges have killed Jorge Campillo this week. On Thursday, he held on as best he could on a bad day of golf, but today he played much better. He couldn’t finish off due to shots with the short clubs, very costly on holes 1 and 3, when he was in full comeback. Meanwhile, Pablo Larrazábal (+10) had a day to forget with 79 strokes. On Thursday afternoon, at the end, he was even having trouble chipping, something unprecedented in his career, a good example that it hasn’t been his week.
