The television broadcast has caught a very amusing moment in the last round of the Spaniard Ángel Hidalgo this Sunday at the Ras al Khaimah Championship.
It was on the green of hole 14. The Malaga native has sunk a sensational putt of almost seven meters for eagle, has taken his ball from the hole and has exchanged a few words with the Dane Marcus Helligkilde, one of his playing partners. Both laughed generously after the comment and Hidalgo, immediately afterwards, took three good sips of a drink similar to a juice and which in no case resembled the usual concoctions that golfers carry in the club bag to regain energy during a round.
What was that drink? Where had it come from? What were Helligkilde and Ángel laughing at? There is a story behind it, simple, of the many that are cooked daily in a round of golf and that do not come to light. Let’s go with it…
It all starts with the fact that Helligkilde and Hidalgo, the Iberian-Nordic double H, have maintained a fantastic relationship for some time. They forged it in the year they were together on the Challenge Tour. They are buddies and the jokes between them in the tournaments are constant.
So, on hole 10, just after Ángel made a bogey, Marcus, to defuse the situation, offered him a smoothie. “My girlfriend is going to buy me a mango smoothie at the tee of hole 14, where there is a stand, do you fancy it?”. Ángel, who is up for anything, said yes.
And so it was, when they arrived at the tee of the 14th, par 5, Helligkilde’s girlfriend appeared with two mango smoothies and off the two players went towards their second shot, chatting and sharing a mango smoothie with a straw. It is not usual in a final round of a tournament where there is so much at stake, but the anecdote perfectly reflects the affable and friendly character of the two protagonists.
On that way to the second shot, the two were joking with the television cameras of the European Tour and in the conversation the expression came out: the power of the smoothie. “You’ll see how your round changes”. In Ángel’s case it was undeniable. As soon as he put the eagle putt in, he went to Marcus and told him: “here it is, the power of the smoothie”.
As if that were not enough, on the next hole, still under the influence of the smoothie, he achieved another birdie. However, there were not so many laughs, as is logical, because the smoothie did not sit so well with Helligkilde, who settled the 14th with a par, missing a clear birdie putt, and escaped the 15th with a double bogey.
Behind-the-scenes stories of a competitive golf round.
