It’s never pleasant to miss the cut in the first tournament of the year, especially if it’s a Rolex Series. However, you have two ways to face the setback: roll up your sleeves, work and get up, or lament your luck, let yourself go and wait for the wind to change on its own.
Alex del Rey chose the first solution. He didn’t feel he played badly, but the putter completely abandoned him in Dubai. Therefore, he put in two solid practice sessions on the putting green on Saturday and Sunday. When Ángel Hidalgo finished his round at the Emirates, there was Alex putting. When Rory McIlroy finished a little later, there was Alex putting. When Iván Cantero was fighting to get to the top, there was Alex putting.
Today, the Madrid native signed for 68 strokes in the first round of the Ras al Khaimah Championship and placed fifth. However, the most important thing is that he delivered the second-best result of the afternoon, only surpassed by the Englishman Jack Senior (-5). Yes, definitely, the afternoon was more complicated than the morning. Mainly due to two factors. The morning shift had two hours of respite with practically no wind, and the greens became harder as the day progressed and they lost moisture. Among the top 17 players on the leaderboard, only Senior and Del Rey played in the afternoon. It’s easy to say…
The weekend work in Dubai helped Del Rey feel better on the greens, but also, without a doubt, a change of instrument. This week he decided to put the Spider putter he used last year in the bag and benched the one he used at the Emirates. As David Puig, with whom he shared university at Arizona State, told him during the practice rounds in Ras al Khaimah: “look how the little spider is doing…”.
Indeed, the Spider worked like a charm. On the greens of the Al Hamra Golf Club, which are not exactly easy to read, the golfer from La Moraleja made two good birdies from about five metres and another four from between one and a half and two metres. It’s a great balance on a day where there were more tears than joys around the hole. Three-putts were falling left and right.
Del Rey signed for six birdies and two bogeys. One of the moments of the day came on the 8th hole, a par 5. He had started the round like a shot, with three birdies in the first five holes, but his pace slowed with a bogey on the 6th. Shortly after, he got into big trouble. He missed the tee shot to the left on the 8th and had to hit a provisional. They found the first one, and he was able to play it, although it was in a very bad position. The second shot went again to a bad area, now on the right, and the third ended up in the bunker, still 90 metres from the flag. It smelled like a bogey, but he hit a brilliant fourth shot from the sand and holed a one-and-a-half-metre putt for par. You never know what would have happened, but a bogey there would have hurt him, especially being a par 5. He saved another good par on the 9th and recovered wonderfully from the second bogey of the day on the 12th with three birdies on holes 14, 16, and 18. A striking move from the Spaniard, who will play on Friday morning in better conditions.
The tournament lead hasn’t changed. Armitage (-9) held the lead all day with his early morning round. Jack Senior joined in with -5 in second place alongside Cantero, and Alexander Björk and Alex del Rey moved into fifth. The top 10 finally closed at -3. The wind, though not the most challenging on this course, caused havoc, but especially the hardness of the greens.
As for the Spaniards in the afternoon, Manu Elvira (-2) managed a magnificent round, including a fabulous eagle from the fairway on the 16th hole, Alfredo García Heredia (PAR) held his ground against the course with very solid golf, and Rafa Cabrera Bello (+1), Ángel Ayora (+3), and Nacho Elvira (+5) suffered and will have to work hard tomorrow to make the cut. They weren’t the only ones: Daniel Hillier, who battled against Tyrrell Hatton to the last breath last Sunday, shot 78, the same as Jimmy Walker, while Rasmus Neergaard Petersen shot +5, as did John Parry or Keita Nakajima.
