Go and watch Blanca Fernández live. Don’t hesitate. If you like golf, or if you like sports, or simply if you like a show, go. You won’t regret it. It’s a fun experience. It’s like crossing the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur on a tightrope with a club across your chest. At times it’s a risky sport, true, but it’s always worth it. It always leaves you with something you don’t usually see. It’s worth the ticket price.
At La Sella Open, you will be able to see, for example, 280-metre drives as if it were nothing. She did it on the 11th, flying over an intimidating bunker that crosses the fairway and encourages most golfers to play short. Blanca is not like most. It was a majestic drive. She left herself a second shot of just 40 metres and made the birdie. Easy. If such a concept exists in golf. She also did it on the 15th. Some bystander was convinced that ‘that’ had hit a sprinkler. Nothing, nothing. It’s pure power. She left it five metres from the green, par 4, 20 metres from the flag. Here the birdie slipped away.
You will also see a masterful bunker shot. It was on the 9th hole, par 5. Of course, she went for the green in two, something her two playing partners didn’t do. It was a long shot, about 15 metres, complex, with little green to work with. Magic. She left it a metre and a half away and made the birdie.
Similarly, you will remember shots that are not usually seen on a golf course, much less in a women’s tournament. They are shots like Seve’s. On the 16th hole, she missed the fairway to the right, into the rough, under a tree with a very blocked line to the green. Really, the mortal eye saw no gap other than to play under the trees and do it very well to avoid a large water hazard on the way to the green. Fortunately, Blanca’s eye is not that of a mortal. The Madrid native saw a gap to hit over the top. She had more than 160 metres to the flag and the ball was slightly above her feet. She pulled off a stratospheric 6-iron with a draw (right-to-left effect), leaving it a metre from the flag. She magically turned a bogey situation into a great birdie chance. The putt, however, lipped out completely. It couldn’t be crueler.
Blanca shot 69, three under par, and rallied to get to PAR, make the cut, and give herself a good chance to do more than interesting things over the weekend at La Sella Open, the second tournament of the Ladies European Tour held in Spain this year. The result, really, is almost the least of it. Not for them, obviously, but the audience remembers the show. How much fun they had. Much of Blanca’s good play today at La Sella was due to a change in strategy. “I decided to stick to the plan and play with determination. Yesterday I thought too much about the dangers, about protecting myself too much, and it didn’t work. Today I went all out and will continue that way over the weekend. Driver everywhere,” smiles the Spanish golfer in statements to Ten Golf. Curiously, on Thursday she signed a triple bogey on the 15th after teeing off with an iron… Today she put it on the edge of the green with the driver. That’s how you get rid of thorns, in a big way.
Blanca played very well today, but she’s seasoned with golf. She takes nothing for granted. “I’d rather not say anything because I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Today was like this, but another day I don’t know how it will turn out. I’ve had some confusion with my game in recent weeks. We’ve made some adjustments and with some confidence today it worked out and hopefully it will continue like this for the rest of the days, but I’m not going to get excited because it’s just one round. I’d rather stay stable, although it’s not easy,” she says with complete sincerity.
No one knows what result Blanca will achieve this Saturday. What is certain is that if you follow her, you will have a good time.
