There is a singular, almost mysterious triangle, whose vertices are the Spanish Armada, in all its extension, throughout the history of the DP World Tour; the Majors, the most important events of each year in the calendar; and the Irish Open, the Open of Ireland, which this week plays its 69th edition.
It’s very simple. The Irish Open has only been won by four Spanish players: Severiano Ballesteros, who did it three times, José María Olazábal and Sergio García, who won it once, and Jon Rahm, who has won it twice. Never, neither in the era before the European circuit (since 1927, year of its first edition), nor as a tournament of the DP World Tour (from 1972 onwards), won the Irish Open another Spaniard who was not one of these four.
Does this list sound familiar? Indeed, they are the only Spanish players who have also won at least one Major. There is no other tournament in which such a circumstance occurs… Well, actually, there is only one other: the Masters of Augusta. It is the other tournament, there is no more, in which only the four Spaniards who have precisely won at least one Major have won.
So far, the irrefutable facts. From here, fiction. Let’s have fun, in any case, with a fallacy that springs up alone: the Irish Open has only been won by four Spaniards; these four Spaniards are the only ones who have won at least one Major; then every Spaniard who manages to win the Irish Open will end up winning a Major… Well, that’s fun. Especially for the twelve Spaniards who are this week at the Royal County Down: García Heredia, the Elvira brothers, Campillo, Cabrera Bello, Sebas, Cantero, Otaegui, Larrazábal, Tarrio, Hidalgo and Del Rey.
Let’s leave it at that the Irish Open, as far as the Spanish Armada is concerned, has been until today something like a singular filter of excellence. In fact, except for Seve, who won for the first time in Ireland in 1983, the other three, Chema, Sergio and Jon, won the Irish Open before their first Major. It’s a curiosity, a wonderful coincidence, because we must not forget that in the history of the European circuit there have already been up to 33 different Spanish players who at least won a tournament, so it will not be for lack of excellent champions. Manuel Piñero, José María Cañizares, Miguel Ángel Martín, Gonzalo Fernández Castaño, Pablo Larrazábal, Rafa Cabrera Bello or Jorge Campillo each came close to victory in this tournament on one or more occasions throughout history… But they did not succeed. The truly interesting (and fun) thing would be for example this week one of the twelve aforementioned Spaniards, present at the event, to sing victory on Sunday afternoon…
