Josele Ballester was one of the standout figures of the week in the penultimate individual tournament of the LIV Golf season, held in Chicago. The golfer from Castellón, after a solid start on Friday, gave a true display of skill on Saturday to reach the final 18 holes of a Saudi tour tournament for the first time with a real chance of fighting for victory. A win that slipped away in the last breath, in an agonising playoff against Jon Rahm and Dean Burmester that the South African eventually won.
For the young Fireballs player, who will turn 22 next Monday, being involved in that playoff was an unforgettable moment: “Yes, it was very special. I definitely would have signed up for that when the day started.” Rather than lamenting the outcome, he tries to draw positive conclusions and a lesson for the future: “I had a good opportunity on the last holes to maybe close it out, but I couldn’t do it, and yes, I will learn from it. When you lose in a playoff to a birdie, there’s not much you can do. I think I hit a great second shot. I executed a great putt. It could have gone in. Hopefully, next time it will.”
When he talks about the chance he had to close the tournament, he is undoubtedly referring to what happened on the 15th hole, where after a brutal tee shot, placing his ball in the rough next to the green, just a few metres from the flag, he not only failed to secure a birdie that seemed in the bag but also walked away with a painful bogey, decisive in the end. A par four that was a true reflection of his tournament statistics, where he gained 1.76 strokes from the tee and lost 0.14 around the green, an area of the game where he has the most room for improvement.
With just five tournaments played in the Saudi circuit this season, Ballester has already fought for victory, driven in recent weeks by his great final round at the Valderrama event, which became his turning point after a tough start due to necessary adaptation, and he occupies the 33rd position in the overall circuit standings, with 39.28 points. With less than half the tournaments played compared to the other players, he arrives in Indianapolis this week with a chance to even fight for a spot in the ‘lock zone’ of the overall standings, although he doesn’t need it because his place in Sergio‘s team for next season is more than guaranteed.
A team that pushed him yesterday to the last breath when he was fighting to win and in which he assures he trusts “one hundred per cent”. A way of competing that, in a way, helped him overcome the disappointment of not achieving victory: “Yes, I feel that maybe at that moment I didn’t feel so unhappy. Now it’s starting to affect me a bit more, unfortunately, but having your teammates there, cheering you on when you were in the playoff, just looking at them and also appreciating how far my improvement has come is great, and I hope we can play well in the last two tournaments.”
