Among the top 18 players in the men’s world amateur ranking, there are fifteen Americans and three foreigners. One South African and two Spaniards! The Spanish talent pool, both male and female, continues to bring joy.
The best placed of the three is Josele Ballester, winner of the US Amateur and recent debutant at Augusta. He is ranked seventh in the world. In the top ten is the South African Christian Maas and just two places below, another Spaniard, Pablo Ereño, who is twelfth.
Ereño is experiencing one of his best moments in golf in the last months of his university stage. In September, he won the World Golf University Championship, his first victory counting towards the ranking. Just a few weeks later, he extended the streak and claimed his first individual title in the American university league. Achievements unlocked.
Pablo, a player from UCLA, is facing his fourth and final university year, a peak moment of maturity in this final stretch of his college stage. If something seems to characterise the career of the Madrilenian, beyond victories, it is the consistency with which he performs week after week.
In the last eleven tournaments he has played in stroke play format, he has achieved eight top-ten finishes. A frightening solidity. His consistency has earned him the Les Bolstad Award. The Big Ten conference award for the golfer who has played the fewest average strokes throughout the year. Pablo is the golfer who has flown the lowest with an average of 69.8 strokes. He has been the only one in the entire Big Ten to play below the 70-stroke-per-round barrier.
In this final stretch, the decisive one of the season, Pablo will seek to close his university stage on a high note. This past week, UCLA won the conference finals, and Pablo finished in 12th place individually. Ahead are the Regionals and the grand final of the NCAA, undoubtedly the great final challenge.
