The first time Ángel Hidalgo picked up a golf club, at a time when he could barely lift a hand off the ground, he had a great time. There was no one who could take it away from him. Good shot, a smile. Bad shot, another smile. Until today. It’s his profession and he knows it, but he feels it like a game. He considers himself privileged to have turned what he likes most into his job.
“If I didn’t have a good time, I wouldn’t be a golfer. I wouldn’t be able to. I’m that lucky. When I play well, I enjoy it a lot, and if things don’t go so well, I enjoy the game of others. At the British Masters I was hitting pan shots one after another and I had a great time watching Jordan Smith, who was playing with me. It was spectacular. I remember thinking: how can it be that this man, as he plays golf, has not even been close to getting into a Ryder Cup. For me the worst day of the week is Wednesday, but not because of the Pro Am, but because it takes a long time for the competition to start, that’s what I like the most, going out there to fight… I never get tired of playing golf (if nothing changes he is going to play nine weeks in a row until the tournament in Korea)”, he assured this Thursday to Ten Golf shortly before going to bed as the sole leader of the Acciona Open of Spain after the first 18 holes.
Hidalgo is a player in the broadest sense of the word. He has a good time and everyone on the DP World Tour knows it. It’s the worst kept secret on the circuit. Everyone wants to play with him. He really celebrates the good shots of his teammates. “Look, if I get to Sunday with a one-shot lead and the other guy has a putt to tie me, I want him to miss it, I’m not stupid, but apart from that, I like it when others play well and make birdies”, he points out. Today, at the end of his round, up to twelve different players and caddies have approached him to congratulate him. He is one of the joys of the Tour.
Let’s not fool ourselves. Hidalgo has a good time, enjoys himself and plays the song Ay, Lupita on the 1st tee before going out to play because it gives him a good vibe, but then he takes it seriously. “When he adjusts his glove he gets down to business”, says Gonzalo Vicente, his caddie for just over a year. He, better than anyone, can attest that his boss manages to enjoy every minute he spends on the golf course, even when things go wrong and he takes home a thorn or two like at the Open Championship at Royal Troon in July, when he missed the cut. “What annoyed me the most is that I played very badly, I hit very bad shots and I couldn’t even take advantage of the fact that I played in the best shift. I couldn’t prepare for the Open as I would have liked, but in the end I take it as an experience that will serve me”. There you have it, always the positive assessment.
Hidalgo leads the Acciona Open of Spain. It is the third time in his career that he leads a DP World Tour tournament. He tried it for the first time at the Joburg Open in 2022, after the opening round, curiously also with a -6, and repeated at the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters at Valderrama that same year, after the second round. On both occasions he finished in the top 5. The Malaga-born player has made six birdies, an eagle and two bogeys, both in the final stretch, which always leave a bittersweet taste. Even so, nothing was going to take away his smile today. The eagle on hole 4 was out of this world. He hit a perfect drive, at medium height, penetrating, that managed to crown and then he let loose a whack at the mini driver of Callaway that left him three meters from the hole. In.
He enjoys his leadership, but he takes it easy. “Seeing myself as the leader of the Open of Spain sounds weird as hell. If it were the third day and only tomorrow was left, probably today I would have trouble sleeping, but with everything that’s left and with those coming from behind, especially one that we all know, calm down, there’s a lot left to play”, he explains. That said, if he had to ask and dream humbly, he would ask to play with Jon Rahm on Saturday. “I’ve never played with him and it would be an honour”, he points out, as well as a coincidence, since today during breakfast, before going out to play, they were together, talking about the wind, the carnage that was seen on TV and how the holes were being played. Who knows if they first shared breakfast and later end up sharing a stellar match.
Hidalgo has a two-shot lead over Sam Bairstow (-4), Julien Guerrier (-4) and Sepp Straka (-4). A clear demonstration that the afternoon has been a little more bearable than the morning, especially in the last two hours of play, as the intensity of the wind gusts has dropped. With -3 are Adri Arnaus, Jon Rahm and Ashun Wu.
Hidalgo carries in the bag the word ANKS printed. Where does it come from? “From when we were little in Guadalmina (the Marbella course where he cut his teeth). One day we said that we had to call each other with a single syllable, something that was said with only one sound. I put Anks, my friend Felipe was Phil, for Mickelson, and another friend of mine, Antonio Cruz Conde, was Conds…”. Well, that’s it, life always seen from the funniest side. The worst kept secret of the DP World Tour.
