David Puig (-3) has gone from saying goodbye to the tournament to being fully in the fight for victory in just half a round. Third, two shots off the lead. That’s how quickly things can change when you have such an explosive player in front of you. And it was all about attitude. Call it maturity. Call it composure. Call it experience. It all adds up. It all counts in the story of the “peculiar” round signed by the man from La Garriga in the second round of the Dubai Invitational.
The situation pointed to disaster from the 14th hole. His fifth of the day. Triple bogey. More than just a slap. A stab in the side. A triple bogey that could almost be said to have come out of nowhere. An unforced error. The kind that hurt the most. He doesn’t hesitate to admit his mistake. His ball ended up in the green bunker after his tee shot on this par 3. It wasn’t even a bad shot. The wind just caught it more than he expected.
Once in the sand, Puig tried to be skilful. He can afford it because we’re talking about a short game genius. But this time his gamble didn’t pay off. “There was more sand than usual in the bunker and I tried to be very precise, to hit the perfect shot to give myself a good chance of saving par. It didn’t work out. Immediately afterwards, the same thing happened. Same intention and same result. I had taken three shots and hadn’t left the bunker,” he explains to Ten Golf. On the fourth attempt, he managed to get out and needed two more putts to finish the hole. Painful.
Shortly after, on the 17th, out of bounds to the right, more visited than you might think this week because the water is intimidating on the left. Another triple bogey. “That was a bad swing,” he admits. Although it must be said that the out of bounds is very tight. In any case, the result was devastating. In four holes he had signed a six-over-par and had dropped to the middle of the leaderboard.
However, perhaps the experience he lacked on the 14th to play for bogey, he made up for on the 1st tee. Conversation with his caddie. “Okay, I wasn’t happy, but it was really two triples with only one bad swing, I was playing well and, besides, I was five or six shots off the lead with a lot of golf ahead.” That’s what they said to each other and the therapy worked wonders.
“It also helps that birdies came very quickly,” David honestly replies. Specifically, there were three in four holes, the same sequence as Thursday. “Look, yes, the talk was good, but many other times you say similar things and they don’t work out, it’s just that today it worked out well and we made four birdies from there, so it’s worth mentioning… I wish it were all that easy,” Puig says, exuding pure common sense.
Beyond impromptu therapy sessions in the middle of a round, the reality is that David is playing very well and is holding on to that to think he’s going to put up a good fight. There are eleven birdies in two days, the most of anyone in the top 10 of the tournament. The irons, which he has refined so much this winter, are working. In fact, his six birdies today came from less than three metres, something close to a feat on such a windy day.
These are the peculiar days of golf for David Puig. A struggle for him and a delight for those enjoying it from outside the ropes. The Catalan left the Dubai Creek Golf Club today with his chest a little more puffed out than usual. And he had reasons for it, given how he turned things around in a critical situation.
