Pecanwood sounds like a lost town in Utah, known for a couple of deaths under strange circumstances in the past that later inspired a television series. Nothing could be further from the truth. At least, as far as we know, there is no place in Utah with that name.
What is known is that there is a golf course in South Africa with that name, and far from harbouring a dark or macabre history, it exudes a very positive energy for Spanish golf. This week, the second tournament of the season of the HotelPlanner Tour, the My Golf Life Open by Pecanwood, is being played there.
It is located in Hartbeespoort, a place halfway between residential and tourist, situated a few kilometres from Pretoria. It is nature, there are mountains and a lake, yet it is known for being the most polluted area in South Africa due to suspended particles. But don’t worry, this is not meant to be a tourist guide, but to tell what happened here in the only golf tournament of the DP World Tour or the Challenge that has been held in these domains before this week. It was in 2022. A very pleasant precedent.
We were still in the throes of the pandemic, and it was a strange week. There was no television, despite being a fully-fledged European Tour tournament. For this reason, one of the best performances of the Spanish Armada as a whole could not be seen. In fact, it was very similar to what recently happened in Ras al Khaimah. We had a Spanish victory, the sixth for Pablo Larrazábal, Adri Arnaus came second, and Nacho Elvira finished sixth. The festival.
Larrazábal, from Bahrain, shares his memories with Ten Golf. “It was the time when I was playing great, like in the movies. They called it the Return of the King. What a time,” he comments with his ever-present sense of humour. More seriously, Pablo assures that it was one of the most special victories of his career. “I hadn’t won for three years, and it was the first I achieved with Raúl Quirós as caddie. Great memories and great friends there. Winning at Infinitum was great, close to home and surrounded by friends, but the one at Pecanwood was very important,” he explains.
If anyone can talk and give advice on how to play at Pecanwood, it’s Larrazábal. “It’s an interesting course. The first impression is that it doesn’t seem very complicated, but then you don’t score very low; if you miss the fairway, it’s narrow, there was a lot of rough, there were houses nearby, you could hit it out of bounds…” he notes. Be that as it may, the winning score was -22, and there was a triple tie that forced a playoff. In other words, aim for an average of five under par a day at least, unless the course has changed a lot.
Pablo Larrazábal conquista el MyGolfLife Open en un agónico playoff
Larrazábal defeated Englishman Jordan Smith and Spaniard Adri Arnaus in the playoff. On the first hole, Pablo holed a putt of about five metres for birdie, Smith also from two metres, and Arnaus missed, who was the closest of the three. On the second hole, Larrazábal left it very close for birdie, and Smith made a bogey with three putts. The sixth in the bag. “It’s a very fun course. It plays differently on the weekend, it gets tough,” he points out.
If Pablo is the king of Pecanwood, Arnaus, present this week, is the prince. The man from Moià wants the biggest crown and to remove the thorn left by that week in 2022. He also scored -22, with a stratospheric seven-under on the back nine on Friday. He made no less than 29 birdies in 72 holes, more than one every three holes. If he maintains that same pace this week, he will be in contention to win again. He comes from having a good week in Zebula, in the inaugural Challenge event.
At Pecanwood this week, we have the aforementioned Arnaus, Santi Tarrio, making his debut in the HotelPlanner and who was also there in 2022 (35th), Albert Boneta, Sebastián García Rodríguez, who withdrew three years ago with the tournament underway, Quim Vidal, Víctor Pastor, Borja Virto, and Lucas Vacarisas.
Arnaus se quedó a un putt de asegurarse estar en el Mundial de Match Play
The goal is to continue the good Spanish history on this Jack Nicklaus course. Meanwhile, the king of Pecanwood warns: “We have a new week in Bahrain, a new life, be careful, if the irons and wedges work a little better, we can be there…” Larrazábal concludes.
